Angelic find
by kaylana2468
Summary: An angel lands in Mystic Falls catching the eye of a certain Original that goes by the name Elijah. Finding an Angel had never been apart of his plan until now.
1. Chapter 1

_An angel's descent is a spiral downwards into an abyss that will never release._

Dazedly, she staggered forward her stomach lurching sharply in avid protest, her chest tightening with every short release of breath.

She watched the rain hit the pool of water that traversed below the bridge they landed on. The falling rain anything but soft and mild accompanied with the growling sky, resembling some sort of lightning beast.

It was a warning that caused more pain than worry.

Susannah's eyes move over the terrain wildly. The freedom of home being taken in a fraction of a heartbeat, exchanged for a cage, where the occupiers are much too free to understand the concept of being trapped. There is nothing she can do but accept her fate, tightening her grip on the child in her arms she feels a numbness spread through the tips of her fingers.

This was wrong.

They do not belong here.

Whimpering as her muscles strained with every step forward, the slashes that covered the layer of skin on her abdomen oozing red blood onto the pavement below her feet. Marking her steps.

The child's hair is a messy halo of dark unruly curls, for the most part he keeps his head buried into her, revealing into the warmth her skin provided. The only visual oddity the child offered was the black wings that sprouted from his naked back. Sleek like those of a birds, the wings were large in comparison to the frailness of his body.

Curling his chubby fingers around the fabric of Susannah's clothes in an attempt to latch himself onto her, latch himself onto something that felt like home.

Susannah could feel the thickness of death all around her. A deep long lasting tendril, that was unperturbed by the ripples of time. She could feel its slick touch trace down her spine with unadulterated calculation, enjoying her divinity.

It was immortality itself.

A tall unknown figure graced from the shadows carrying death on his back, stepping into the light the moon offered, a gracefulness prowling naturally in his steps. Instinctively she stumbled backwards, jerking a shrill cry from the lips of the small child.

"Have you been injured?"He inquired with a voice like satin. As if he actually cared.

The man's dark hair clung to his chiseled features due to the heavy rainfall, his body clad in respectful attire. His eyes dark and impenetrable, skewed by the heaviness of the rain, slid languidly down her body.

He remained impassive at the sight of wings hanging off the back of the young child, a talent not many men were capable of.

Elijah Mikaelson had no idea of what to make of this. He had seen his fair share of abnormalities, some caused by his own hands, but this was a different matter altogether.

The scent of the blood that ran down her body in small droplets, mixing in with the rain, was an animalistic magnet that drew out the bloodthirsty monster inside of him. Dragging his tongue across his lips he let his eyes slide up the vein that throbbed proudly in Susannah's neck.

Slowly removing his suit jacket, the woman's eyes watching his hands diligently. "May I provide you with some shelter?"

His tone was the epitome of polite and cordial. The rain falling doing nothing to distort his picturesque appearance.

Confliction divided her expression, looking down at the child, Arael, with hardly concealed worry. Curtly she tugged the jacket from Elijah's grip, wrapping it immediately around Arael's small body.

"Thank you," Susannah said softly, her eyes downcast. And Elijah is stuck frozen, as if someone had tugged all the cords of their puppet. Her voice saturated the air with humidity, a depth inside that made his loins tighten with need. An easy and smooth voice with a calming vibration, washing over others in waves of honey and milk; light as a butterfly's kiss.

Questions began to hoard his mind as his bottom lip twitched, words forming on his mouth with no consent from his head. Snapping his jaw closed, he shifted. Since when has he, of all men, lacking control? Instead of pondering more on the subject he offered her an arm.

"I will take you somewhere safe and warm."

Susannah moved reluctantly. She didn't have many other options. In fact she had no other option, but Susannah could not shake the feeling that he was anything but safe. Looking down at Arael, seeing his small body shiver, she hesitantly accepted his offer.

Moving his arm around her thin abdomen, he tensed when he felt a wetness different from that of the rain touch him. Pulling away to see dark red stains of blood seeping through his shirt. The blood was nothing short of intoxicating to look at. A deep, almost passionate red with a sweet scent to accompany it. His jaw ached and he could feel her eyes on him, testing him.

Meeting her prying eyes he almost withdrew due to the intense ferocity playing freely in them. It did not speak of disdain or dislike, but it spoke a silent promise. One that said she would do anything to survive.

Something in her eyes told him she knew of his true nature. And that very fact should have made Elijah walk away.

Composing himself, Elijah led her to his vehicle. The wounds that littered her body seemingly holding no value to her. Holding the door open for her, he watched her sit and adjust the child more comfortably on her lap, examining the interior of the car with confusion and intrigue. Reaching out to soothe her small hands over the window.

The drive to the home away from his siblings was quiet. It was his escape, a place he wasn't necessarily excited about sharing. Elijah had never liked sharing. If he did so it was because it was expected, rarely did he do so purposefully. It was his silent enclosure and solitude. Located at the edge of town, surrounded by nature more than anything else. Small but elegant and somehow comfortable.

Arriving to his secret place, he immediately led her inside. She moved about with heavy hesitancy, watching Elijah's every move as if she was just waiting for him to attack. Gathering some towels, he sat them down on the table besides where she stood.

"Who are you?" Elijah inquired cordially. Removing the dripping tie from around his neck.

Her eyes met his unflinchingly, Elijah refused to look away.

He hated backing down from any challenge, especially one of this nature. Unfortunately he wasn't prepared for how easily he got lost in the iridescence of her eyes. He doubted the color had been seen before by man. Her eye color had the striking nature of gold and the coolness of silver and blue. The fierceness of a strong red with the sweetness of a light green. It was a color made to be lost in and not found again.

"I am Susannah and this Arael," She introduced herself and the child with curved lips and narrowed eyes.

And the he saw it.

Elijah doubted anyone else would have noticed. It was fairly anticlimactic, and it wasn't unusual in terms of human nature, but on this woman it was odd to say in the least. The distrust burned thickly inside of her, many distrusted the Original, and that no longer meant anything to him. But, this woman- or thing- was calculating his death. He watched her eyes flicker to any piece of wood that could be made into a makeshift stake in a matter of seconds, she examined him from the perspective of an opponent and nothing more.

"What are you?" His words were brutally blunt. He watched her muscles tense beneath her skin. Elijah couldn't help but wish there was a better way to ask of someone's true nature.

"Why do you need to know?" She carelessly flicked a piece of flint off her shoulder. Her slouchy yet poised demeanor displaying an inherent nonchalance.

"It is always wise to know exactly what one invites into their home."

Susannah raises an eyebrow, looking up at him with a face of pure amusement. As if he were merely a pawn on her chessboard. "We are angels."

Her voice lacks any depth he can study and entertain. Yet as the words leave her mouth she flinches.

Angels.

The words circle his head and he cannot help but stare at her further. This woman was the embodiment of beauty, it was of sheer willpower that he hadn't got caught in the web of her appeal. However there was something unnatural in her perfection. She carried an unearthly intensity. One he knew not many could stand beneath.

"You're upset." Susannah states as if this fact is more so than intriguing.

A flash or righteous anger courses through him. "Angels?" The word comes out venomous."If you are truly what you say, and you have the divinity of heaven at your beck and call, you simply chose to not intervene in the monstrosities of earth."

She tilts her head in an adorable manner. Her gaze direct and intense. "And who causes those monstrosities?"

Words quickly get caught in his throat. He stares at her, and she merely raises an eyebrow at him. Elegantly shifting her weight from foot to foot.

"What are you called?" She asked in her light thrilling voice. It was the kind of voice that the ear follows up and down, as if the speech is an arrangement of notes that will never be played again. A singing compulsion that whispered "listen".

"Elijah Mikaelson," His voice was cool with shinning polite eyes that held a certain arrogant tint to them, as if his name was enough to establish his dominance. Not even the restric-fulness of his clothes could hide his enormous power in his body. Susannah could see a great pack of muscle shifting when his shoulder moved under his thin coat. It was a body capable of extreme leverage. A cruel body.

Gently placing her hand in his, she felt his fingers tighten around her. Leaning down he placed an effective kiss on her knuckles, allowing his lips to drag a small space before pulling back with a glint in his eyes. "It is a sincere pleasure to meet you."

"You should speak the truth, rather than hide behind a thin veil of forced politeness," She immediately denied his claim, with nothing more than a sideways glance. Feeling the repressive and burdensome flames of loneliness drive over her.

He chuckled darkly. "The truth is not always useful."

She doesn't bat an eye."What _usefulness_ did you find in aiding me?"

Elijah's eyes fell to the curve of Susannah's neck. Before they quickly darted away.

"I suppose, one could say, I'm intrigued." His voice nothing more than a low drawl, as his hands slid over the table rhythmically.

"Humans tend to be fascinated by what they don't understand."

"I am not human."

"You wish you were." She said simply as if that explained everything, shrugging her shoulders languidly.

Elijah takes in all he receives from the angel, which unfortunately isn't enough to ease his burning curiosity. Allowing his eyes to drift over the child- the purity that drifted off his skin made Elijah take a step back. He would hate to be the one to dash something so innocent.

"The reason you are here has to do with the child."

Susannah looks down for a moment, her long dark eyelashes cuddling her curved cheeks in a way that could be considered attractive. "Wise." She murmurs gently." Arael is apart of my family, such as it is , the question is, Elijah, are you going to try and take him from me?"

Her words taint the crisp air. It's a challenge she's issuing, even though he is uncertain what the contest entails.

"I wouldn't dare." Elijah of all people, knows the importance of family.

Her posture doesn't relax at his proclamation, but something shifts in her eyes.

Suddenly Susannah grasps a hold of his wrist, and he feels flames lick at his skin. Flames that create an untameable pleasure through him.

Normal angels simply cannot feel loneliness, not only is the emotion a foreign prospect but the opportunity to feel it never presents itself. And how could it? When all the angels are connected to their assigned garrisons, there isn't room to be lonely with all your brothers and sisters so palpably connected to you. No room when you can hear their consciousness in your soul, their voices whispering rhythmic murmurs to your mind of their love.

But now everything is silent. All she can feel is the brother she chose to save.

And now, with her hand on Elijah's skin. The Mikaelson as well.

He doesn't move to remove her hand even with the question burning deeply in his eyes.

"Why?"

"The story is fairly uneventful; not something you would want to hear."

"How can I trust you-"

"I'm not asking you to trust me. In fact I'm not asking for anything." She carelessly flops down into a chair, setting Arael down on the floor gently, before sliding her dress up to just below her breasts. Her legs are long, and curved wonderfully and colored a unique honey color with undertones of gold and red. The more Elijah stares at her the more of an angel he sees.

Turning away to offer some form of weak modesty.

An electrified thought, powered by pure animalistic want drives through his head. He cannot help but imagine running his calloused hands down her soft thighs. The buzz of power, different from then when he is on the battlefield, the simple action would provoke. A soft thoughtful sigh falls from his mouth. When was the last time he bedded a woman? Especially of one of her magnified attraction.

Elijah can feel her eyes on him, piercing through him. "They are just clothing, they may as well be nothing."

Her words hang in the air.

"Can you read my mind?" Elijah's fingers clench as he tries to pretend her attention does nothing to him.

"Yes," He swallows a deep breath. "But I am not currently doing so, I do not violate anyones privacy without valid reason. However, you were calling for me."

"Calling?"

"Whenever someone thinks my name I receive a vague impression. Usually fleetingly."

"What else are you capable of?" Elijah inquires, honing in on her face.

Susannah laughs, it is not even remotely real. Just an acidic amusement. "Not many know my true name. You should be grateful I decided to extend that right to you, Elijah. It is not one I give to many. I am not obligated to give out any more information, especially concerning the capabilities of an angel."

"Do all angels act as if they are superior to all others." His eyes catches light of the wounds spreading over the expanse of her skin. He has tortured enough to know where they came from.

"Depends," She swiftly called back. "Do all vampires live by the rule of what blood they desire most?"

"You know my true nature?"

"I knew the second I saw you."

A sharp cry breaks the conversation as the young angel tugs at his wings with a ripping like motion. His eyes wide and filled to the brim with a certain self hate.

"Arael," Her voice immediately drops its sharp nature for a more soothing one as she allows the dress to fall from her hands as she drops to her knees in front of the child. Susannah's line of sight no longer included Elijah, only Arael.

Soothing the wing from his jerking grip she gently caresses the limb.

And all Elijah can see is three dark wings falling to the floor, blood matting the beginning of them.

"Brother," She whispers and tears slant her vision. The most intense case of sibling adoration corrupting her features. "This is not your fault. You are not him. You are simply Arael."

They stared at each other. Thousands of words exchanged.

Longing swelled inside of Elijah. He had never seen such devotion reciprocated in two distinct people.

"There are some questions I need answered." He states calmly. Susannah faces him as if he is a mere annoyance, one she couldn't wait to be rid of.

She nods sharply.

"How did this happen? If you truly are what you say- I would assume hurting someone of your caliber would be virtually impossible."

"We all have our...weaknesses." The words roll of her tongue awkwardly as if they have no place being there. "I suppose mine would be my family."

"They did this to you?" Elijah asks with wide eyes.

Susannah doesn't offer any emotion. Just a vague detachment. "I disobeyed so I was expelled."

It seemed like a weak excuse to Elijah. Nothing truly tangible, just a name for something impossible to truly understand. "You see, the brilliance of my home is the illusion of choice. They give you an option, the choice is always simple because there isn't one. You may choose, but you must obey; you must always obey. If you do not serve his will he may strike you down as he pleases. I was expected to kneel or fear for his wrath. The one who taught me choice able to take it away so easily."

Elijah's mind reeled from her hard words. Licking at his chapped lips he spoke slowly. "And how do you know disobedience is the answer?"

Susannah stops at that, at those words, eyes trained carefully on Elijah as he stands before her, imploring her. For a moment Susannah balks at that, at the heavy sensation of being judged by this person, by this puny man who does not- cannot comprehend- the things she had done, lost, and suffered from. What can a vampire know of her, an angel who has seen eternity? Who has the knowledge of earth at her fingertips.

She is just about to say so, is going to instinctively snap, but when she looks into his eyes she draws back- because she sees something speaking faintly to her.

It is faith. It is a full hopeful belief dedicated to her, from a vampire she knows almost nothing of.

"Because the answer I was given wasn't the right one. The ends never justify the means." Her hands immediately soothe over her brother's feeling the angelic presence she had grown accustomed to long before.

Rolling his sleeves up to his forearms with onyx eyes flaring with warning. "I can heal you."

Her smile reminds him of a cat, claws hidden away for now. "How do you intend to do that?"

"As a vampire, my blood can heal- but you already knew that. So tell me, Angel, why do you stay?"

"Not all morality centers on humanity," she says so in the same sing-song voice she'd said everything else in, the accent crisp and melodic.

"I have killed." His words meant to dissuade, from what, he isn't sure.

"Humans aren't the only things that deserve to live." Her voice is flat, said with a soft iron. She leans towards Elijah, examining him. "Your blood will not be of any help. I was wounded by celestial beings with celestial weapons."

Elijah had almost forgotten she was one of those celestial beings herself.

"I can heal myself." As soon as the words left her mouth the world seemed to jolt alive with a new kind of energy. It didn't match up in any way with the feel of natural magic, or any witches magic. It had more weight and less boundaries. It was a magic that sustained itself. Details jumped out at him. Euphoria seeping into his veins, so much so that he vainly wondered if any of this was anywhere close to being real.

A radiance swelled beneath her skin, causing her to glow.

Her body quickly becoming clean of any wounds, but the scars still remained.

She was made up of power. A power others would have wished to simply be close to.

"I must know more." The soft demand trickled from his mouth as his fangs descended from their place.

"Do not speak to me as if I am below you, Elijah." Her voice so low it growls in his stomach.

"Should I bow down then and beg like a lowly animal? Send prayers that I know will not be answered." Elijah spoke with surety, looking down at the small angel in front of him.

"Do you think I want to be here with you? That your company makes up for the pain of being disowned. That I asked to spend my time with a creature of darkness, an abomination. One of which death hangs off of so willingly?"

They hold eye contact a certain frustration dancing in the air.

"If you do not want me here- I will leave and not return." Susannah says softly. Her eyes glazed over as they stared in the direction of the door. And all Elijah could see is someone who needed help, someone much to prideful to even consider asking for it. Only able to accept it for someone other than herself.

"I stopped for a reason, Susannah. You need me."

"I don't need anyone." Was her immediate response. One full of natural defensiveness and anger.

"No?" Elijah mocked, glancing down at Arael.

Digging her nails into the center of her palm she bit down on her lip. "What do you want from me?"

"Nothing."

"I've seen the way you look at my neck."

"I can control myself."

"Can you?" She challenges offhandedly.

Elijah holds her eyes for a moment longer. "Tell me more."

She looks pained as she allows her eyes to fall downwards and her shoulders to sag. "I can't." Stepping forward until her body was pressed against his, her eyes raised suddenly and her lips pursed. "Elijah, do not infer in a war you know nothing about."


	2. Chapter 2

Susannah's head fell back as she gazed heavenward, her eyes stuck on something she couldn't see. The unfamiliar burn in them, contorting her vision, causing a surge of trepidation and confusion to surface.

She had never known what it was to cry before. She has always wondered if it relieved the sadness, now she knows it doesn't. No more than scratching an itch.

The angel cannot help but think back to when she had first seen a human shed tears. Couldn't help but wonder if she looked that pathetic...and quite frankly weak. The heaviness of them only serving to infuriate her and bring forth a fresh wave of insufficiency.

She was a flawed angel.

A misdesign.

The loose thread in the blanket that could cause the whole thing to unravel unless you cut it off.

Why? She can't help but ask herself as she brushes the back of her hand roughly across her face, only to feel a new pulse of tears start again. Why shed tears for a family who has none for you?

Except she knew why, the answer just didn't feel like enough of a reason.

Susannah had always been different than the other angels, just like Arael. Susannah understood order; she followed the word of god, his lord; she was a good obedient soldier. But when God created Susannah he must of been a touch _tired,_ or maybe he was thinking of a few of his other children- some of his oldest- because Susannah, unlike most of her siblings, had pure unadulterated, curiosity seated deep within the core of her being.

To let her curiosity roam free was an indulgence she had never been able to partake in.

The angel ran her hand over the beautifully decorated bedspread of the room Elijah had offered to her, she had always longed to be on earth, however never under circumstances such as these. On earth, Susannah could expand her knowledge, she could learn everything. She could follow theories, religion, learn history as it happened, watch how the fates magic flowed and shaped humans. She even wished to witness the birth of many faith based gods.

 _But never like this._

The wings unseen by any human now felt like weights on her back.

Closing her eyes she brings her hands to her face. The air of earth is tampered with raw emotions. She wants to laugh and scream and let them devour whatever divinity remains.

Through her blurry vision she seeks out Arael.

Arael's wings are as black as the spaces between planets they used to float in between. So black they seem to absorb light. But if you got close- no one got close- but if you did you would see they were not just an inky forever drawn darkness. They were starlit galaxies, exploding stars and constellations, streaks of green fire.

Unlike Susannah, Arael could not pretend to be like the rest of the heavenly host.

His mere existence was an act of rebellion. A rebellion that lived, able to infect and spread among others like some strain of a disease. Somethings are simply toxic, and even when you know it you cannot stay away. They are bright blue eyes with messy dark hair and a million questions about humanity. And it happens to be Susannah's main weakness.

He was made to be broken and unfixable. So he wouldn't be like the others.

And Susannah knew this. She knew Arael couldn't be saved. Yet he smiled- he smiled at her- and even though she knows she will regret it...Susannah would damn heaven and herself for that smile.

"Sister please do not cry," Arael begged, awakening from his slumber. His words although spoken in a babyish tone of voice were solid in their pronunciation. His blue eyes large and animal like.

The last time Arael begged, she turned against heaven.

She cannot help but flinch at that thought.

Susannah's expression remains blank as she faces her youngest brother. Seeing past his physical human facade and staring directly into his being.

The wounds inflicted on his being remain, disgust churns in Susannah's stomach. Hurting a fledgling was considered ghastly. Unless of course that fledgling was with black wings.

Healing is nothing. For all it's drama healing is nothing but a touch. The angel had once breathed life into dry bones and spun grace into flesh with less than a thought. Healing her own physical form had been simple, mostly because it was only a container. Something she could easily wipe away if need be.

It just goes to show how weak the angel truly is at the moment.

The power she can feel beneath her skin is bruised and sickly, unable to do such a task as healing her own brother. The powerful tear between her and the host, along with the force of the fall branding Susannah as handicapped.

Placing her hand on her brother's arm, a tingle of power racing through her. Arael's faltering grace strengthens and his breathing steadies as the wounds begin to close, Susannah indulges him in a grim smile.

A moment is granted before pain drills through her chest. Looking down she sees Arael's fierce glare, odd on such a childish face.

She had never met a creature who hated being saved as much as him.

A second later Arael's wounds are hers to burden and her brother is healed.

"Sleep brother,"Susannah says with a voice not unlike an order. The angel can't help but notice how frail her voice sounds. As if she were a second away from drowning beneath the pain.

"What of you?" His lips tremble as she begins to see tears and sorrow dance lovingly together in his eyes. His wings sitting uncomfortably still.

"I will still be here when you awaken." Susannah responds offhandedly, forcing her body to relax despite the pain. Feigning easiness, as if the pain was nothing.

"That is not-"

"Sleep brother." She lays his body into the mass of blankets, silently begging her brother to give her the solitude she so desperately craved. He stared openly, before nestling his body closer to the warmth. Susannah could not deny hearing the gentle snuffles he gave before the rhymes of his chest exposed his rest.

Susannah's grief surged with every expelled breath, never sufficiently soothed by her long drawn out drags of air. Now that Arael had found solace in sleep her emotions found it safe to wander and come out freely.

 _All she wanted was some breathing space in which to hurt._

Elijah was never one to pry on anyone's privacy unless necessary. He knew everyone needed space and time to break down and rebuild themselves without the embarrassment of being seen. His eyes however disobeyed his order of leaving her form. He watched her get smaller and smaller with every passing second, as quiet sobs racked her body.

It was disorientating, wrong.

Every instinct inside of him recoiled at the sight of her tears.

It was a brutal thing to watch.

No. It was a human thing.

"If you wish me to leave I will." Her voice was washed out and drained. She stood casting him a sidelong look in his general direction.

Momentarily stricken by the musical like vibrations of her voice, Elijah wondered if their will come a day when the power her voice had no means to affect him. Her chin was raised ever so slightly, and for a second Elijah wondered why anyone would ever associate blonde hair and blue eyes with pale skin as being angelic when this woman, with hair darker than night holding glints of red and browns adding depth and eyes that seemed to be a color humans have yet to name, was everything celestial, divine, and angelic.

That intensity, he wondered if it was something all angel unanimously held. She slowly walked forward with precise and light movements. Her eyes begging for something, anything.

He can't help but wonder if she's aware of how unsure she looks. Inhaling without any actual need, he basks in her scent. Pure and clean, like the forest after rainfall, with an underlying light scent of pure femininity. It wasn't her looks that always struck him first, it was her scent.

"I will not burden you, Elijah."

She meets his eyes. Susannah had never seen eyes so dark with so much light in them. His eyes were black as of now, not soulless nor lifeless. Instead they were two pristine stones of onyx, that lit with an orange flame when the light hit them.

Brushing her tears away with the back of her hand.

Though the angel was nothing less of enchanting, perhaps it was the way she carried herself with a shallow; almost otherworldly grace. Elijah could immediately tell she came from another place, maybe even another era, something about her seemed to fit perfectly into the landscape of extravagance but at the same time she couldn't be more foreign.

"I won't ask you to."

She blinked multiple times in surprise, crossing her arms as goosebumps rose along the line of her skin." I do not wish to a burden placed upon you."

"I chose this, if there are any consequences they are of my own selection," Elijah replied, his voice diplomatic and stable. Tilting his head slightly he takes a moment to appreciate the beauty the angel emitted so readily. If he wasn't completely positive she was an angel, he would've accused her of being a siren, succubus, or maybe even Aphrodite herself.

Her mouth falls open slightly, her rose like lips puckered as if begging to be ravished."You are a very confusing man, Elijah."

For a reason Susannah is unable to name, calling Elijah a simple abomination no longer felt correct. More realistically, she was the abomination.

Elijah hummed in reply." How so?"

Susannah has seen her share of damage. She has blown apart buildings with a single thought. She has killed with nothing more than her voice. A single glimpse at her true power is enough to permanently destroy a humans soul.

Susannah knows destruction.

She knows death.

Yet parts of Elijah seemed to be made of death, a death she hadn't seen before.

"You are strange, for beneath your exterior you are frightened and sickened by your own savagery. And sometimes seem to have no heart for violence and rebel against such atrocities utterly."

"Death is no stranger to my hands." Elijah explained openly to Susannah, he expected wrath. He lifts his hands for her to see, and Susannah sees the scars of hard labor etched into them, but no blood.

Instead she raised an eyebrow. "Do you really believe that I am that blind and hypocritical that I won't even ask why you do what you have done?"

"There is no justification for my behavior concerning human life."

"Yet there are plenty."

She doesn't go into greater depth with her words. A wisdom greater than that of any library echoing in her voice.

"Your brother is considered a complete contrast to nature. A hybrid they call him." Susannah said in a whispery tone, moving so she could look out the window and see the moon dipping low in the sky.

"That is true." Elijah responded, moving to stand besides her willowy frame. Her hair lifting by the soft current of air that flowed through his home.

"Did you find it difficult to accept him after finding out his true nature?"

It was a story all knew. The corruption the original witch had left, blurred the lines between the living and the dead, between man and nature, between the physical and etheric.

Elijah is silent.

He had only ever asked himself that question.

"No." Placing his hands on the windowsill he leaned forward. Watching the flowers in the garden move against each other. "Niklaus has always been my younger brother, and no matter how much he distorts that image it will remain."

Susannah smiles. For such an animal, Elijah Mikaelson was that much more of a man. "And the idea of disownment- was that ever a thought in your mind."

"No. I know for certainty that was not an option...only in recent years have I considered such things." Elijah frowns, the honesty in his voice shocking even himself. He couldn't help but suppose that was a ramification of being in an angel's presence.

Susannah shook her head, the dark strands of loose hair hitting the sides of her striking cheekbones. Liquid stinging her orbs.

"To shun my true family is a crime even I, a creature of blood and night, refuse to partake in."

Elijah's voice seems to leak from the shadows and touch over her form. Wiping the tears off her cheeks before they spill off her chin. She hated being seen as weak, but Elijah didn't seem to see her as such.

"You _disappoint me, Susannah. You are no sibling of mine."_

Then, all but instinctively, Elijah took her into his arms. Pressed against him, her whole body trembling, she continued to cry without a sound.

The contact was simple enough to be placed into the context of a hug. She could feel the warmth of affection and that was more soothing than she thinks Elijah is aware of. Her body sagging in his, giving him the full weight of herself.

"Why are you holding me?" Her voice cracked as more tears spilled out of her eyes, staining Elijah's suit jacket. Her voice is muffled from his form.

Even though she doesn't understand it, Susannah doesn't want it to end. His shape is so different from hers. Whereas she is soft he is hard, his body almost holding an unbreakable like quality to it. Every delicate curve pressed into every crevice of muscle. His body swaying naturally and her's immediately weilding to his.

"Shhh," The sound causes her eyes to fall shut. "Just trust me. Even if it is only for a second."

But how?

Feelings sprouted beneath Susannah's exterior. The slight awe struck affinity, which was pure and innocent and not tampered by the whole of society. Childlike in the sense of being new and unfamiliar.

A long moment passed too soon, and Elijah pulled away from the electric feeling of touching her. Susannah's scent imprinting itself on his skin.

"I am not sure I understand."

She stared into his eyes, remaining tethered to him.

"I know," It was endearing watching her stumble through the thick of her emotions like a confused bambi.

Her eyes narrowed as her head fell to the side. Physical contact was something she was not particularly used to.

"I now see why humans touch each other so much. It is very pleasant." Susannah muttered, her nose scrunching up adorably.

Yeah pleasant. Elijah could think of far more inappropriate words to use.

Susannah shook her head, the dark strands of her hair hitting the sides of her tan cheeks and striking cheekbones. Her lips turning upwards into a shy elfish smile. And while that smile caressed her face, Elijah lost all sense of time and reality until she turned away. How much time would he lose because of this angel? "You are not like the others I have known."

"Others?"

"Humans-" She said softly.

Elijah's mouth fell forward. His muscles straining against the constraints of his suit." And what is it that makes me so different from them?"

Combing through her dark hair she glanced upwards at Elijah with a simple smile."Humans are base. They are so willfully ignorant, so naive, so resigned to their lot. They often refuse to believe anything that doesn't fit into what they are used to believing. They are a renewable source. You, Elijah mikaelson are not."

Elijah coughed, words stuck in his throat. His tie suddenly feeling much tighter around his neck.

"Sometimes humans do things so purely human. So beautiful. So kind. Sometimes I catch glimpses of that and it reminds me of you."

A sensation soon spread from the area beneath his collar bone outwards. Stretching across his skin with a fiery vigor, as if a detailed image light was being drawn over his body.

The idea of reaching out and touching her felt so natural.

Elijah had never been a touchy man. He preferred his space, coveted it. However his had refused to acknowledge that as it lifted and reached for Susannah.

Dragging his fingers over her cheek, feeling the shape of the bone beneath her skin, her skin hot like fire. A physical comfort to know she was right beneath his hand. Extending down to her throat he lets his fingers run through the hair at the base of her neck.

A shiver racking Susannah's unexpecting mind. She felt as if his touch was submerging her under something she truly wasn't able to quite understand yet. Her mind struggling to catch up with what her body already understands.

Her eyes are equal parts, soft and hard. All of her words painfully authentic. "You make me feel." She said quietly, fiercely.

Elijah wants to ask her what he is making her feel. To describe it to him. He wonders if he feels the same.

Swallowing hard he doesn't stop. He can't stop. It feels as if his hands are no longer his.

There are a couple of freckles on the span of Susannah's shoulders and Elijah traces the space between them, then drags his palm down the long curve of her spine to the small of her back. Gooseflesh rises in the wake of his touch, along her shoulders, across her back. Elijah touches it with his fingertips. He knows she isn't cold.

He thinks, what are you doing?

He had never before felt the most intimate need to touch someone so carelessly. Without any sexual intentions behind it, just merely to feel and discover.

She doesn't push him away. She just stares, her eyes blazing into his.

"Why can't I see your wings."

"Why would I let you?"

Elijah chuckled like an entertained wolf," Because," he drawled, forcing his hands to his sides. A heat pooling in his palms, only to be cooled by a different flame through the feel of her. "I wish to see you as you."

Susannah giggled breathily, one of the first real laughs. Like the chiming of a sweet single bell.

She flutters her eyelashes as if clearing something out of her vision. "You may not like what you see."

"Where would I find something better?" Elijah wished the question was only flattery and not so damn genuine. He didn't know why but seeing her made him feel like less of a deadly abomination. She was something out of a dream-a dream where he was not a spoiled young prince- but a king.

She stepped forward, her chest touching his. "Earn it," She vocalized coyly with a hint of dalliance. Twisting away from him in one clean motion."If you wish for me to show you one of the most sacred and precious thing an angel has you must earn it."

The edge in her voice was like caressing hands, molding the original into putty. Her voice pulling a dizzying stillness over the ancient vampire. His lids heavy and the hungry savage beast inside of him calming to her whims. Arms relaxing over his chest, crossing for comfort.

"How would you propose I do that?"

"Your fairly intelligent, I'm sure you can think of something."

A chuckle fell from his lips as he examined her, finding his eye particularly stuck on the curve of her lips.

"Pardon me for interrupting, but Elijah it seems you have forgotten to introduce me to your _guest_."


	3. Chapter 3

The door was closed. But a closed door and a couple of walls don't keep Klaus out. Not truly. So he entered without any questions or true regrets. He shouldn't have been surprised to see his brother, the perpetual caregiver standing in front of such a woman such as she. In that frozen second between his entry, Klaus sees Elijah's eyes flicker to him. His face is unreadable, as of now, but in the moments before Klaus had witnessed the smallest hint of developing affection.

The house was something only Elijah would find endearing. What it lacked in size, it made up for in style and elegance. The room filled with a warm wooden decor and a large stone fireplace that happened to be the only light source of the room, made the woman and his brother look like some kind of models, fit for cataloguing on the front cover.

Elijah moved easily in front of the woman, blocking Klaus's view of her. As if he belonged in front of her, protecting and defending. His fingers curling into a fist before suddenly releasing. The barest dab of a possessive flare burning his dark eyes.

Klaus sauntered to a position diagonal to his brother, offering him a view of the woman. His eyes lingered soaking in the light that dripped off her skin in waves, the color of her eyes which seemed to range to anything an artist could imagine.

The air grew stagnant and cold at this man's presence. The atmosphere of earth was made up of emotions toppled upon emotions. Susannah breathed in the laughter, the passion, victories, thoughts, memories, existence, joys, moments and hues of sunlight.

However with this man's attendance the wicked air she had not yet tasted pushed at her. The begs for mercy, the cries of shame, guilt, suffering, torture, death, hunger, desire, lust. Kill or be killed, steal or be robbed, take all or lose mercilessly- hesitate and die. Even if his stairway to his throne was piles of human corpses along with his sins, this man would gladly stomp on each and every one and claim his sins if it meant he got to wear his crown. Something so stiltedly interweaved, that it made her stomach drop instantly.

Her foot fell backwards on it's own and she had the sudden urge to check on Arael. Death may have clung to Elijah like a second unwanted skin, but this man seemed to enjoy the darkness crawling and snaking over him. His eyes are hard and gentle. It surprises Susannah to see a man such as him with gentle eyes. Her stomach flips uncomfortably, something is terribly wrong in a world where a monster can have gentle eyes.

Despite knowing she is stronger, ultimately her powers still shrink up inside her and she wishes to hide behind Elijah's tall frame once again. Her eyes continuously darting back to him as if to seek reassurance.

He moved with calculated carelessness, someone so unapologetic about who they were and what they have done. If anything she would have described him as the human Lucifer saw so many years ago when he refused to bow. The human he said would do anything to be successful, even if what they do harms them and drags others down for their own needs. But what Lucifer couldn't see was in a way, this man, was just like him.

A man made of pride.

Father had once said pride was the root of all sin.

Lucifer was an angel made of simply that. Yet through his pride he was always the brightest, the brightest to fall and fade.

His dark blue eyes lingered on Susannah, something flashing in his eyes. As if he could see beyond whatever walls she had built up since taking one step on this human land. Addressing Elijah with a wide smirk he shrugged idly," Is this the reason you haven't been drifting away from your family like some misplaced child?"

Elijah hardly batted an eyelash, he remained gruff, coarse, and unyielding. His steps are slow and calm, unhurried and unworried. As if this man, entering his home uninvited, had no means to affect him. Elijah seemed to be born calm and collected, his face stern yet peaceful. A sneer didn't twist his face, the only thing Susannah's eyes could pick up was a small twitch of his left eyebrow.

"I know my place very well Niklaus, the question is do you?" Elijah's tone implied more than he ventured to say, waiting for the real reason his brother had come. Remaining as patient as he could be with Niklaus, whose mind worked as it pleased.

The man, Niklaus, had a much larger scale reaction. His body tensed, and his eyes gave way for a terrible glare. His lips turning down in the corners for a short second before coming back up in a large superficial smile. Susannah's eyes bounced back and forth, observing the interaction like a critic would a movie. Looking for small, seemingly unimportant details.

Niklaus peered at Elijah with a look of disdain,"Who is she, brother?"

The fact they are siblings wasn't a surprise. They interacted like they have known each other's mannerisms for years upon years.

"None of your concern," Speaking in a dulcet tone.

Elijah's words seemed to push Niklaus's eyes back to Susannah. As if he could see something no one else could see.

Klaus licked his lips tauntingly, this girl who stood in front of him reeked of power. So innocent yet so stained, he liked that ironic element embedded in her.

Elijah caught sight of the small frown on Susannah's face. She looked uncomfortable, her body turned away from both him and Niklaus, her arms hanging limply by her sides, her colorful eyes shifting around as they searched for something unknown. She seemed lost among the conversation. He smothered the urge to smile at her, to reassure her, to hold her once again.

Elijah watched her chew on her bottom lip, before swiping her tongue over the abused flesh and starting the cycle again.

"Brother-" Niklaus said in a patronizing tone,"introduce me to your lover."

Elijah stands silent, resilient.

"Indulge me, won't you?" He smiled cheekily, his eyes turning into crescents. As if coming to his own conclusion he moved stealthily around his elder brother and placed a hand beneath the woman's chin, forcing her eyes to his.

"Hello love," Klaus murmured, in a voice that could be mistaken for comforting," What is your name?"

"Susannah," she answered with a silvery tone. Her long eyelashes fluttering confusedly. She seemed to expect something entirely different from him than what he was giving.

He could not deny she was beautiful, more so than many others he had come in contact with. That scent, that lovely, lovely scent. It was all around him now, mingled with the euphoric feel of her body pressed against his. She was warm, soft, and pliant. All perfect, womanly curves and skin so delicious he had to restrain himself from leaning down to taste her.

"Do you believe in angels?"

The question came out of nowhere, and Klaus froze for a mere second before continuing on in his charming ways.

"I prefer not to."

"Does that mean you still do?" She persisted.

His eyes narrow for a moment and he stares at her for a while. Stares in a rather intense way, like a doctor looking for something in his patient. "Only in fleeting moments."

Susannah felt Elijah come up behind her. His broad shoulders towering above her, she wanted to sway into him. Feel his powerful arms around her while she rested on his chest.

"Brother if this is all you have come for-" Elijah began in a velvety voice.

"I will be on my way, Elijah, do not fret." Klaus said with an easy grin. The blue in his eyes looked as dark as midnight at the moment, a twinkle in his eyes like they held all the stars in his gaze. He had a solar system inside of him, a universe of secrets Susannah yearned to explore.

"It was a pleasure meeting you, love."

Klaus turned on his heel, and walked out with a constant measured speed. Elijah remained behind Susannah, his head tilted as if listening for something through the walls.

"That was very dangerous." Elijah said bending down to move closer to the angels ear. His breath cool against her naturally fiery skin.

The angel, tensed beneath his ghost touch, immediately pivoting to face him. She didn't like knowing someone was there when her back was turned. Her eyes...made Elijah feel warmth as she stared as if he were the problem and somehow the solution all rolled into one. Still remaining fairly close to the ancient vampire.

Susannah laughed a feathery laugh, the chiming sound musical in melody. Elijah could feel her body move against his, such a wondrous feeling that brought a feeling of bliss to his troubled mind. "Do not worry for me Elijah, you have already done more than anyone else has."

Elijah seemed disgruntled by her words for a moment. This woman- no angel, didn't expect to be even an afterthought in anyone's mind. She expected nothing from no one, he couldn't help but wonder if she had ever even received a gift. "My brother is not the kind of man to be taken lightly, he hurts people for his own rudimentary enjoyment."

"Just like you have?" Susannah asked bluntly. Her eyes open and honest. There was not a hint of judgement, or even any other human emotion he could pick up. Just an inhuman naivety and curiousness. "But you do not wish me to fear you, do you?"

Elijah couldn't help but wince slightly. Her words were unknowingly scalding against his cool nobility. "No Susannah, I do not wish for you to fear me. That is possibly the last thing I want."

"But you did attempt it. In the beginning, you used your vampirism as a way to bring forth uneasiness within me." Susannah frowned, human mannerism was as confusing as it was clear. He wished her to be free from fear while still reminding her what there was to fear.

"I did."

Susannah frowned.

"It didn't work."

"I know." Elijah said with a hint of a smile. Almost pleased she defied his beliefs and expectations.

"Then why do you wish me to fear your own flesh and blood?" Susannah intoned with a confused face as if working out a difficult equation with no true answer.

"He will come to desire you. Your powerful, Susannah." Elijah spoke with something akin to awe, his eyes heavy and full as if that answered all. He soon brought her face close to his, so close it was hard to focus on all his features, the smell of him something expensive and dangerous. He then dragged his thumb over her plump bottom lip, his dark eyes following it.

Susannah's eyebrows furrowed and her mouth opened only to close once more.

"You can speak, little angel. I will not silence you." _I will never silence you_.

Her eyes intensified. "Desires are what most easily ruin us. There are so many desires, lust, power, revenge, love, and almost everything in between. Everyone somewhere desires something. So how is his desire any more dangerous from anyone else's?"

Elijah's eyes appraised her. It must of been difficult to question something when taught to question nothing. "Because his desire is curious."

The flood of firelight from the room seems to grow brighter, creating shadows upon shadows to dance upon the walls. Susannah meets his eyes, something so deadly serious in them he knew it would have been impossible to look elsewhere. "So our mine."

"And what is it, that an angel like you, desires most?"

He was so close to her then that they owned every molecule of air in the tiny room and the air grew heavy with their joined desire and worked to move them together. Elijah eyeing her as if she were a pail of water in a desert long dry. His tongue wetting his dry lips as he waited anxiously for her words.

"Freedom." Her voice is but a mere whisper, a slow sultry song to the ear. Her words spoken with what can only be described as dripping sex. Elijah shifted- him getting aroused was an insult to the angel before him. Marking men, and him especially, to be nothing more than a pavlovian dog who salivate uncontrollably and are inherently drawn to nothing more than the vision before him.

"The prohibited fruit is always sweet."

"Bitter always follows sweet," Susannah shot back easily.

"Anything forbidden takes on a significance that draws us in, whether bitter or sweet." Elijah claimed wishing more than anything to hold her like he did before. To feel the heat of her skin beneath her fingertips.

"Perhaps it is blasphemous...but I cannot help but compare human desires to mine. Father allows there's- perhaps he can allow mine."

Elijah can't help but wonder if she would be confused by the way her voice is making him want her, which is like no one else. He knew this deep down, that he wanted her in a new way. A way she had never been told about. If he took her in his arms he would keep her. He would allow her all the freedom she desired, because he couldn't help but assume that is what she deserved.

"And what does freedom intone?"

Susannah tilted her head, her dark hair falling over her shoulder. "To inflict and to feel. It is sad to me that a place woven together by love won't allow it's own patrons to find it." The angel pushed her hair roughly away from her face. "Angels don't have hearts, those whom I have met would argue that. Angels were built to be soldiers. Soldiers do not feel, soldiers do not tire, soldiers do not think, and soldiers most definitely do not love. Father may have said to love all, but not one angel was meant to love too much."

"Perhaps you are not a soldier but a warrior."Elijah whispered as if it was a secret meant only for her to hear.

"The difference?"

His dark eyes flickered up and down her body. He was brilliantly put together and as eloquent as always. "A soldier follows orders, a warrior creates them."Elijah hand reached out to touch and feel her once again. His palm aching. "And what do you know of love, little angel?"

"That it must be a choice." Susannah said with a gentle tongue.

"Oh, my naive angel." He pauses briefly to meet her eyes again."Love is rarely a choice."

He moved so fast, so quick, the angel was momentarily blinded. She may have breathed his name, but she couldn't be sure of anything except his swelling scent and the heat wafting off his body. The dreamy sensation pulsed in her skull, filling her with an airy emotion that sucked the breath from her lungs. The current washing through her, carrying away hidden doubts and insecurities. It was just her and him and the pounding electricity.

His hand rested on her waist, dwarfing her. His hand calloused and rough from years of strenuous labor. He pulled his hand back, as quickly as it had been.

He didn't want to smother that light. If he caressed her skin, if he rasped his knuckles against her jaw, if he lightly gripped her chin and pulled her towards him, he would snuff out something beautiful with the black stains on his hands. He roughly pulled himself away.

"Susannah, little angel, I just ask of you to stay away from my brother."

Susannah inhaled sharply, the air she didn't need scarce. Looking away she continues the conversation from before. "He reminds me of my brother,"Susannah said with thoughtful eyes and a faraway look. The scars on her back throbbing with memories of a war no one spoke of clearly. The wings Elijah couldn't see tensed- they were hypersensitive. A sensitivity no normal human could truly comprehend, and she'd never trust no normal human near them.

"How so?' Elijah asked as if he knew exactly what brother she spoke of. Some form of amusement dancing in his dark eyes as if he knew she was avoiding talking anymore about love.

"My brother is the being holding the true definition of power, he has many that love him and even more that fear him. A crown carved by his own willpower rests on his head and he sits in a throne no other can claim, yet somehow it is not enough. He still feels threatened, envious of others. He is cruel and cold and often merciless, but one can't help but feel sympathy for him. Even if it is forbidden. From a child in danger to a dangerous child."

"You miss him." Elijah stated with mild shock. Elijah's dark eyes swallowed her image, she stood in a shy and soft manner. The avenging goddess and angel locked inside of her restrained to her colorful eyes.

Susannah's eyes didn't change. She stared as if it pained her to not speak. Yet she didn't. She couldn't say the words...she had spent too much time in silence. But she had learned other ways to speak. The angel just needed someone to understand.

He spoke slowly, as if to not startle to her. "My brother is wounded beyond the comprehension of many." Elijah fell silent for a moment, gathering his thoughts. "My sister, Rebekah, had once asked me long ago, after a terrible ordeal between Niklaus and I, why I couldn't forgive him for all his faults and yet still believe he could be saved. I couldn't answer. Mostly because I didn't have one-"

He stopped himself with a short, harsh laugh."Now the only answer I have is he is my brother. And I will always believe he can be saved even when he most often proves me wrong."

"I believe that is one thing we have in common, Elijah."

"What would that be?" Elijah asked genuinely curious.

"An imperfect family." She said shortly with an uneven smile.

Elijah ran his hand over the line of his jaw, his dark eyes narrowing some. "I thought angels were the impression of perfection."

"I did once to."

Elijah advanced forward, striding like a malevolent shadow, consuming the dim orange light, filling the room with another presence more than human.

Elijah had waited for a woman who could marvel him with her intellect, wit and physique, all at the same time. Someone who could beguile him, unnerve him, distract him, possess his every thought. Someone who wouldn't bore him after a few hours of their company. However, Elijah was no fool. He knew the limitations of affection But still, vigilantly, he waited for one to exceed his every expectations.

A soft sob tackled the air, and the angel turned away rushing away to tend to her brother. Leaving the Mikaelson alone once more.


	4. Chapter 4

He hadn't meant to walk in. Despite how Susannah claimed nudity meant little to angels, it didn't ease his own self revulsion. The image, however had been burned thoroughly into his dark and twisted mind, a halo of light.

She stood in front of the mirror, her dreamy frame laden with a wisdom more profound than the darkness that is between star to star. The mirror she had chosen had that pantia of age over it's bronze frame, tall and long. There was no self consciousness or anything on that level, Susannah stared at herself as if her body had piqued her own fascination.

Elijah could understand why, she was the embodiment of perfection.

His eyes had started from the line of her shoulders that spread out further than her thin waist but was by no means broad, only proportional. His tongue soothed over his pink lips as he traced the outline of her dark hair. Curly and wild it hung of her frame all the more elegantly, his fingers aching to twist her hair into his hands. Her body thickened at her waist. A narrow pillar of silvery pink snaked it's way across her lower back. Before leading downwards to her ample bottom. Round and utterly delectable. Shapely legs held her body up.

From what the ancient vampire could see there were not many scars, and they were hardly anything to be ashamed of. The way they lined her body like tattoos that even the most professional of artist couldn't recreate. Some lines Jagged and small, while others unfurled like talons of the bird of fire itself.

Elijah was but a prisoner as his mind dwelled on her beauty.

The thrilling feeling of awe pounced on him, she was so delicate and fragile, yet powerful and queen-like. Her body was a mere vessel, barely able to contain the light that shone through her youthful skin. He didn't need to see her eyes to know that something in her stance screamed "I'm beautiful beyond logical comprehension". Susannah wasn't beautiful in a classical way, no flowing blonde hair or deep blue eyes as seen in most angel myths. No she seemed to defy any expectations or standards and set her own.

Swallowing the saliva that filled his mouth Elijah cleared his throat, needing to find some semblance of steady ground to land on.

"I was always intrigued by the way humans could stand in front of mirror for hours. I wondered what they expected to see. To change," Susannah whispered her eyes stuck on the reflection.

"Have you found your answer?" Elijah inquired with a cough.

Susannah drew a weak smile," I find it to be unsettling. Humans tend to think the best of those are blessed with beauty. They have difficulty imagining that physical perfection can conceal twisted emotions or a damaged mind. It's not a matter of being dissatisfied with your face or being embarrassed by your vanity, but I suppose I can see the contradictory appeal."

A moment of long silence passed between them.

"Yes Elijah?" She didn't face him, her eyes focused on the mirror ahead of her as she continued to gaze at her self with wild curiosity.

His eyes gravitate back to the scars on her lower back. "Your family did this to you."

Susannah doesn't shift, doesn't change the direction of her gaze, just raises a hand to soothe over the scars.

"Why?"

Elijah knew that she did it to protect Arael. But there was more. More she wasn't saying, more that he wanted to hear from her dreamlike voice.

"Because I wanted something different," She smirks, sardonic and wounded. "Guess I got it."

There's something so disarming in her voice, a vulnerability that he wishes to prod. He honestly meant this angel no harm, but his curiosity refused to be sated, not as long as she had the answers his mind wished for.

"They're just scars. They're not you."

She laughed bitterly, a sound that made his stomach twist. "This is not my true form. This is what I would look like if I were to be human. The scars are not on my skin but on my grace, the thing that makes an angel an angel." She pauses, wetting her lips. "I suppose it is better this way. At least I'd have some evidence, some justification of this permanence. Stains are even worse when you're the only one who can see them."

"Tell me."

"No." She turned to him, shaking her head. Her dark hair tossed, and the beams of the morning light played on it, sending brief ripples of red and green and blue through it the same way that light shimmers on the black surface of oil.

"Why?" He moved closer, frustration dotting through him.

"That would be like showing you my wings." She said airily, her head falling to the side as she listened for Arael who was currently in the bathroom.

Elijah bit back a growl." I wouldn't use it against you. I would protect-"

"I've never been protected a day in my life. I don't allow anyone to be too close to my back unless I know they won't put a knife in it." Susannah swore with a vibrancy that forced Elijah to really see her.

"I give you my word-"

"Human promises are too easily broken. Human anything is too easily broken."

"You are questioning my honor, my loyalty based on your human perception. When you forget all too easily that I am not human."Elijah intoned diplomatically. He was unreadable, as he calmly stepped forward. His lips drawn into a straight unmeaning line. She had yet to face him or cover herself.

"I'm not questioning your honor, I'm denying it's existence. If I would be questioning anything it would be your judgement." Susannah replied offhandedly. The words left a bad aftertaste in her mouth, they were only true in part.

Elijah's shoulders tensed with barely controlled rage, if anyone dared to speak to him as this angel just did they would be dead. Respect was something he expected immediately, even when he least deserved it. "Was offering you shelter not worthy enough for your favor."

"This has nothing to do with my favor and everything to do with your honor." Susannah faced Elijah, bringing a steady hand to his face. "It's a charming bit of hypocrisy. Vampires, your kind, capitalize on shortcomings and loopholes in promises more often than others."

"And fallen angels can speak of nothing but their fall."

 _An eye for an eye._

The silence is devastating in a way. Her hand fell back to her sides. She turned away immediately. Refusing to meet his eyes in the reflection that shone.

The annoying need to touch her once again caused his hand to twitch. Digging his nails into his palms he stared ahead heatedly. "Have you always been so defensive? So willing to use insults and whims to avoid talking about yourself."

Susannah froze, her heart stampering uncontrollably. She hated knowing that he could read her, knowing that he knew exactly what she was attempting. "Is that why you're here, to find out more about me?"

"One of many reasons," Elijah answered like a man of the most inflexible firmness and stone like coldness. The colors that painted his soul blaring in an attempt to be seen. Elijah was a man who did nothing reluctantly, even the most disagreeable of matters. Never inconsistent.

Through the mirror she watched him move, there was something of a warrior in him combined with a hidden gentleness. His appearance alone was fairly seductive. His rugged yet elegant features alluring. As if her father had molded him just to spoil the eyes of anyone lucky enough to see him. Susannah had never found a human attractive before; perhaps it was just the atmosphere of earth.

Where such things like affection and want were welcomed and not shamed like above.

"You wish me to spill my story but I have yet to hear yours." Susannah said softly.

His hand trailed over the wounds that featured on her lower back. The touch was intimate and full of a subtle longing, that the eldest Mikaelson wasn't completely sure if it was returned. One touch of her skin made him feel more than centuries of living has aided him with. Perhaps that is why he is so addicted to feeling her.

Elijah had to remind himself that she didn't know what he meant. He immediately pulled his arm back tightly to his side.

"What if I don't trust you?"

"Fair enough," She hummed lightly. Her head fell to the side, her dark hair sticking to the curve of her cheekbone.

"You question many things."Her statement was accompanied with magic, soon the dress that she wore the day he met the fallen angel covered her naked form from his prying eyes. She'd only used her abilities once before in front of him.

"What we do as a society is seek simple answers."

"Interesting."

They shared a smile. As if they were old friends.

"Why are you here, Elijah?" Susannah asked lightly.

Elijah opened his mouth to answer, somewhat stunned by the use of his name on her tongue. She had said it before, but every time she continued using it, his name seemed to sound more enticing. Warmth filled the air, and his vision sharpened. Something that was becoming natural in the light of this angel. She seemed to distort his reality.

 _Why am I here?_

Elijah looked out the large window the room. His eyes monitoring the garden just through the window, almost reachable.

"My family has been reunited and in _celebration_ we are holding a ball- a party of sorts." A sourness and bitterness stained his words. Elijah chuckled, a mirthless sound from a man who had been on the wrong end of life's ironies one too many times.

"You do not seem to be in a celebratory mood." Susannah said slowly, her eyes watching the line of his strong shoulders fall with an exhaustion she remembers feeling.

"It is of my mother's planning."Elijah said, as if that was his final answer. His dark eyes surveyed the room. Staring at Susannah longer than necessary before looking away once again.

"You can speak to me." She waited until Elijah looked at her before speaking again. "I cannot promise I will be able to understand, but I won't judge or give my opinion if it is not wanted."

Elijah stayed silent. Bringing the glass of amber colored liquid to his lips. Taking a long drink of it, as he leaned against the side of the doorway. Watching as Susannah picked up the antique brush and began running it through her hair, starting from the crown of her head and moving downwards with an even pace.

"That is if you trust me enough to do so." She added, her lips forming into a lopsided grin.

Elijah chuckled once again. This one different from the one before. Elijah's fingers ached once again, the internal reaction of wanting to touch her was becoming more difficult to ignore. Especially when she said things like that.

"Mother was like a beautiful little ornament that was damaged. Her broken edges cutting into her children. In turns tender and pathetic and dark." His words further developed into his obvious distrust of the woman who birthed him." Perhaps I will never be able to forgive her for making me into the monster I am today, or maybe my distrust is right."

"Do you love her."

"A hard, sharp, thorny kind of love that may be more resentment or pity more than anything else."

Susannah tilted her head. Standing up unsteadily, she slowly approached the original. Her movements were filled with an unrecognized urgency and nervousness. With her bottom lip pulled between her teeth, she stopped until she was directly in front of him.

Elijah's fingers began to tense individually as the heat inside of the welled, almost forcefully pulling towards her.

Her arms wrapped around his neck as she pushed herself against him. Her body hanging off of his. Elijah tensed naturally, before sinking into the feeling the angels touch invoked within him. He was all logic and feigned cool detachment until she touched him. The rest of the world became an unimportant blur that banished to the far recesses of his mind.

Giving into the temptation his fingers seemed to draw within him he allowed his arms to wrap tightly around her waist as he relaxed against her. She was warm, and soft, and beautiful. A stray part of him wanted to whisper sweet nothings into her ear, because she was here with him when she could of landed anywhere else. He wouldn't though, he hardly knew her. Even though he couldn't deny that he wished he did.

"You can't fix everything with hugs," Elijah spoke, his voice deep. The touch of her skin drove him mad and kept him sane. He wanted her to let go, because a part of him knew he might not be able to, despite his mastery of control.

"But you can't make them any worse either."

Elijah accepted that as a reason to clutch onto her tighter. Her scent invaded the air around him, for a moment she was his angel. Nobody else's.

When Arael left the bathroom his blue eyes were wide and curious, watching Elijah embrace his sister. When Elijah caught notice of him over Susannah's shoulder he slowly released the angel. Susannah stepped away from Elijah a half step, still close enough to be counted as contact, even if there was none.

Freckles spanned the area over Arael's cheeks and nose, dark long eyelashes, with dark hair, and even darker wings. The ancient vampire wasn't the best choose to judge stability, especially when he had never even heard the child utter a word, however Elijah could tell his home had been one of turmoil and violence.

Susannah reached out to touch the recently groomed wing but Arael ducked away. His wings immediately sticking to his small back. Cuddling her recoiled hand to her chest, the angel forced a smile.

"Hello brother."

The younger angel didn't speak. Instead grabbing a hold of Susannah's hands. His head tilted upwards, staring at her as if she was his true mother. Which, Elijah concluded, in some ways was.

"Susannah is going to the ball with you, right?" Moving towards Elijah with a sense of determination, the youngest angel stopped in front of him, Arael's face is hopeful and dainty. Childlike in the sense of being soft and all around gentle.

Elijah raised an eyebrow, a softer expression playing on his face.

"And who would look after you?"

"I can take care of myself." Arael quickly said. "However protection is not what I need."

"You are my cause, little brother. Protection is most of what I can give." Susannah said, focusing her gaze on Arael. Her eyes narrowed in confusion.

"Cause?" Elijah inquired his gaze focusing intensely on the angel.

"You find a cause and you serve it. You give yourself over, and it orders your life. As in the reason you get up in the morning." Susannah said if that was her legacy laid bare. There was no regret, or anger, or burden. In fact Susannah seemed to have pride in her title, in her love for her younger brother.

"I know you wish to blame me for all of this." Arael finally said, his words coming out hooded. Elijah watched as Susannah's mouth fell open and her voice seemingly go mute. His stomach turned as he imagined all the ways this could possibly end.

"Arael-"

"I wish to blame you too sometimes, Susannah." Arael finds himself saying softly. "Rationally, I understand what happened to us is no fault of yours but all of mine. But in some ways I blame you for taking the pain that was meant for me only. You learned the difference between pain and agony for me by the hands of our own siblings. I heard them tell you the pain doesn't matter as long as it made you stronger. I watched them rip you apart Susannah. For me. And now here, on earth, they can't reach you. I just wish for you to enjoy this semblance of life to ease my guilt and selfish blame."

Elijah stood stunned for a moment. To hear such a childlike voice speak in such a serious manner was a contradiction that burned his ears. The words circling around his head as a new piece of Susannah's life was pulled to the light.

Susannah was silent before turning to face Elijah, her eyes downcast. "May I attend the ball with you?"

"It would be my honor to have you my arm throughout the night."


	5. Chapter 5

The building was fairly small and tucked into a barely visible corner off the main street that ran through Mystic Falls. From the outside the building was unimpressive, a place Susannah could not see a man such as Elijah spending his free time. But by the way the original graced up the steps, familiar and accustomed that was certainly the case.

Elijah opened the door, a chiming sound going off above. The wood creaking and moaning with age. The first thing that touched Susannah's eyes was the vibrancy of the place. Every square of space provided was used. A beautiful collage of color and fabrics with finished and unfinished dresses. He seemed very large in the small room, his broad frame dwarfing their civilized surroundings.

"Where are we?" Susannah sunk closer to Elijah on instinct, she didn't believe the environment was dangerous or anything under that. But it was unfamiliar. Elijah craned his head from side to side easing the building tension in his shoulders.

A woman entered the room from a doorway leading further back into the building, her face was worn with age but made clear she had once been very beautiful, her hair was a darker blonde with fox-like eyes, a smile gracing her face. However the smile wasn't one Susannah was accustomed to. The top row of her teeth showed, and there was a faint curve to her lips, but there was no crease beneath the eyes, no movement in the cheeks.

Once her eyes landed on Elijah her smile died faster than wisps of smoke dissipating after a candle is snuffed out. Her eyes narrowed and hardened. Something shifting beneath her now tightened skin.

"How may I help you?" Her voice was tight and the question was directed at Susannah. Her direct stare probing the angel as if she could read her whole complicated life story.

"Cecile-"

The woman inhaled roughly at the sound of her name on Elijah's tongue. As if it was a curse to be the one spoken of by him.

"How may I help you?" She repeated more harshly. Her fingers shook as she twisted them together. Something akin to fear and determination lightened in her fox eyes.

Elijah's head fell to the side slightly, calculating. He didn't seem perturbed by her fear in the slightest, but he also didn't seem amused. In fact as far as Susannah could tell, he didn't seem to feel anything. A cool detachment and indifference.

"A dress." He said simply, his soft lips stretching into a smile that didn't seem to reach his eyes. To Cecile, the woman with the fox eyes, it was the smile of a conqueror. He would have had the face of an angel of his lips would break even further apart. His lips parted a centimeter, making it seductive to many and much too arrogant. Like any other Casanova.

"Of course," She said stiffly. Wrapping her thin cold fingers around Susannah's upper arm she grabbed her harshly, dragging her towards the back of the room. A collection of wide ranging dresses hung on the walls all very beautiful and stunning in their own unique way. A forced politeness taking over her body.

"Is there anything in particular you are looking for?" Cecile waved her arms gesturing towards her wide collection.

"Why are you fearful of Elijah?" Susannah asked instead. Mostly because she was curious, partly because she didn't know what she wanted. All the dresses were beautiful, she didn't really care which one would lay across her skin.

The woman's fake smile fell and disdain filled her dark eyes. Her face grimly drawn, an ugly expression on a beautiful face. "You would be to if you knew what he was capable of."

"Death? Destruction? Evil? I know what he is capable of, just as I know what every other human and inhuman things alike are capable of." Susannah answered cooly.

The woman nodded her lips drawing into a tight line. She stepped forward her glazed eyes soaring over the dresses without really looking."So you know?" Cecile laughed harshly, pityingly.

"I suppose you fancy yourself in love with him, that he loves you to. The stupidity of a decision such as that is disgusting." Cecile glared at Susannah, standing taller than the young angel she looked down at her. A poison resting on her lips ready to spit and burn.

She wouldn't argue that. No matter what she would say Cecile had made up her mind. It would be pointless to argue.

Susannah stared into her eyes, challenging in a way." Do you think so because he is a vampire and you are a witch?"

Cecile sneered her eyes darkening and her magic forming beneath her skin. "I say that because he kills."

Susannah laughed at that. "I am not here to defend him. I am asking what he did to make you fear him."

"What every vampire does to useful witches when they cease to be useful." Cecile answered tiredly. Her shoulders dropped with exhaustion and her eyes fell downwards. Anger coiled beneath her skin but the weight of it was soon becoming too much.

"Blood is hard to clean and it's all over the originals hands." Cecile said weakly. Her voice was rich, sounding smooth and sweet like honey. A final warning. A warning that didn't need to be said because it was already known.

The silence wasn't heavy just not filled with any meaningless chatter.

Something twisted on the witch's face as she looked at Susannah's dark hair against her brown skin. Susannah could have confused it for admiration if her eyes weren't so sharp, and her lips were pursed as if waiting for a snarl to take over her features. Cecile had once believed that age would soothe away envious thoughts, it didn't.

This unknown woman who came in on the arm of an original oozed an effortless charm and more than that she had the respect of Elijah. Susannah was not a decoration on Elijah's arm to be showcased and admired. No she was the main attraction, and Elijah perceived her with more than passing pleasantries. It was an instant respect, not one that required constant watch.

Cecile turned disappearing into the hangers of dresses before returning with a hefty stack. The exchange was simple and continued in silence.

Elijah standing outside of the room wished he could unhear the words that burned his ears. A part of him knew what he had done to Cecile all those years ago was something to be ashamed of. To harbor guilt over. He didn't. Because the nobility and the honor born within him all fell second to family, and as much as he regretted that. He couldn't regret the measures taken to ensure the progression of his family.

A part of the ancient vampire cared more of the words effect on Susannah rather than the witch he had harmed. Susannah had always seen him for what he was, but with Cecile's words he couldn't help but wonder if she was beginning to see too much.

Inhaling roughly he looked through the window, dust tucked away at the corners and the crack through it was glaringly obvious and could potentially turn any customer away.

He heard the light shuffle of Susannah's feet before she exited and his excitement rose to new proportions. His mouth watered at the thought of the potential beauty waiting to stand in front of him. His eyes immediately catching the glowing red on her gold like skin.

All his life Elijah had pursued the perfect red. That was the color he had seen the most over all other. It was overused in a way, but not on Susannah. She seemed to be the only one who made red seem like a new and exciting color. Elijah wanted to applaud Cecile's talent and also give Susannah an award for bringing it to life.

The creamy sheets of silk dress slipped onto her arms leaving her shoulders bare, peppering her body with soft sensual kisses. Like a lover it seduces the senses and conveyed with the utmost skill the art of pleasing. The dress was worn like lingerie on her skin, lace highlights elegantly running over her mid-section. Giving the sense she was bare beneath the dress.

Elijah felt the need to fall to his knees, because no one could deny there was a queen in front of him.

"That will be acceptable." Elijah said plainly. His eyes had already given away what he truly thought.

Cecile coughed," I will need to make some adjustments."

"That will be fine," Elijah said cordially," In terms of payment-"

"The only payment I long for is you out of my life." Cecile said harshly. Her lips curled into a snarl. Elijah raised an eyebrow.

"Very well."

Cecile turned swiftly on her heel. Disappearing behind a curtain to gather supplies.

Susannah's eyes met his. Time seemed to stop; the air stilled around them. There was only her. She filled him with words he didn't know where there. He imagined her wings on hanging on her back, through the open cut of the dress. She was one of the most beautiful things he had ever seen, and her smile made him realize that was the least beautiful thing about her. A smile so genuinely sweet with just the right touch of shyness. The kind of smile that would have been cruel not to kiss.

"Thank you Elijah. I do not think I have ever said that since I've been here."

Elijah wanted to know why she thought of that. As if she was the one to be thankful when Susannah was the one gifting his eyes. "I can say with great certainty that I do not deserve to be thanked."

His words were whispered, and his eyes refused to move.

"Everyone deserves to be thanked. Especially if they do something deserving of it."

"Even if the chaos is greater than the goodness?" Elijah asked. He stepped forward, forcing himself to halt. He didn't want to get to close. He wanted Susannah to come to him.

"Even than," Susannah answered reflectively.

Cecile returned, bending at her knees she began contorting the dress to Susannah's astounding shape. And with every movement, Elijah's stomach clenched, and his mouth grew dry. The ill fitting gown compacted against the curves of her breast and waist, her dark hair falling downwards in wild spirals.

It didn't take long for the proper adjustments to be made. Examining the dress for faults, Cecile stood completely evading Elijah's line of sight, which only remained on Susannah.

"Will that be all?" Elijah asked finding his voice. Stiffly turning to face Cecile.

"For the dress that is, perhaps your spiteful darling Rebekah can help you finish what needs to be finished." Cecile snapped tartly.

Meeting Elijah's dark eyes, she immediately shrunk back biting her lips, as the hairs on the back of her neck stood. For a second the older witch had forgotten her place. Swallowing thickly she nervously turned away, desperately trying to ignore the dreadful burn of his eyes.

"If that will be all, we will be on our way." Elijah's voice was the epitome of polite and collected. It sent shivers down Cecile's spine.

Susannah observed the interaction before turning away slowly, entering the room behind the curtains to undress. Cecile moved to follow before pausing. The cold sweat matting her leathery skin. "What is your agenda with that girl?"

"What makes you secure enough to question my intentions?" He replied. The threat was clear, yet Cecile had nothing left to lose. Her life had cease to matter the second the man she loved had been ripped away by this Original's stained hands.

"Nothing." Cecile looked down at the ground the words clear in her mind, leaving with little choice of her own. "The way you look at her will endanger her. Your attention is lethal."

Elijah seemed to darken even more and his eyes stole fire, becoming twin flakes of embers floating into the night from a roaring inferno. The fiery tickle of outrage burned up in his throat. A calculated thing that grew up in his throat, tasting like blood. "And unfortunately you have obtained my undivided attention. Perhaps we can see how _lethal_ it truly is."

He could hear the timid pounding of heart, threatening to burst out of her chest.

"Elijah," Susannah exited her eyes meeting the full intensity of his. The clothes he had obtained for her hanging loosely on her small frame. The dress hanging over her arm. Elijah's eyes lingered on hers and she wondered the message. Was he truly danger? Was Susannah supposed to run? No, she wouldn't do that. Fleeing would only make him chase her.

Opening the door he held it, waiting for her to follow. With a shaky inhale and one last glance at the terrified face of Cecile, she did.

The walk to the car was near silence if not for the natural noises of the outside. A soft wind blew around them, as Elijah walked a foot ahead of her. Gripping his hand suddenly, her hand trembling a little in his. Rattling him more than he cared to admit. Hot strength gripped Susannah tightly as Elijah stopped in step and pulled her towards him. So close she would've had to move only a couple of inches to brush her lips against his throat.

She watched the still pulse that sat unmoving beneath the thin membrane of his skin, before inclining her gaze. His head was cocked as if searching for something in her face.

She drew in a breath parting her lips to ask a question,"Why are you helping me?"

The acid like anger came back like a lost breath."What, Susannah," Elijah said his hand tightening it's hold on hers,"Are you implying?"

Susannah stayed silent.

"Surely you are not implying that I am using you for something. And you certainly aren't implying that I will-"

"Will do what every vampire does to someone who ceases to be useful?" The words come out rushed and hurried. A frayed sense of worry lying behind them. Elijah's hand moved across Susannah's lower back hugging her to him. Her hands on his chest kept him from getting too close but didn't push him away.

"I am not every other vampire and you are not just another someone." Elijah says, low and gritty.

"I know." The two words ghosted against the skin of his neck, sending goosebumps down his spine.

Susannah swallowed roughly and fell backwards in step away from the original. Her eyes flickered downwards onto the uneven pavement, a nervous silence loosens her tongue.

"You go silent when you're anxious," Elijah said suddenly. Of course he would notice, it was Elijah after all. He threw off her equilibrium, blood surged to her chest leaving her brain defenseless.

"I-" Fidgeting before him, as she fought to find her voice, wriggling out of her jacket, pushing her shoulders back and her chest forward in that way women do without realizing the ache they cause.

"Am I the one who makes you nervous?" Her breath caught, it must of made a sound because his fingers tightened into a fist. Her shaky exhale whispered across his face.

She brought herself to look up at him, her eyes harboring a colored shine. "No," she said quietly. Her voice sounding much more cooler than she felt. "No of course you... _yes_. Yes, you do. And I'm not quite sure why."

Perhaps Elijah could see she didn't wish to talk anymore, or hear the fast unhealthy rhythm of her heart, or smell the hints of frustration and anxiousness wafting off her skin. Whatever the case, Elijah refrained from pushing any further. Soon they walk towards the car continues, Susannah one step behind Elijah, the distance did not hide their matched speed.

"Where off to next?" Susannah asked lightly. Her eyes focused straight ahead as she sunk down into the passenger seat.

"To the home were the rest of my family resides."

Susannah turned to face Elijah as he started the car and pulled out of the parking space smoothly. "I've never heard you refer to that place as home before."

He doesn't look at her as he answers. "I don't reference any place as my true home any longer."

She wants to ask him why, and listen to him tell her, but that wouldn't be fair. Elijah glances at her and she knows he can read the words on her mind. "I don't hate it there." He clarifies even if he didn't have to.

Susannah gives him a melancholy smile. "If it is any consolation the only place I know that is close to home is close to you."

Elijah's hands tightened on the steering wheel."You mustn't say things so carelessly, Susannah." His tongue soothed over his lips as his eyes unconsciously searched for hers. The soft, swollen curve of her lips as she smiled at him grew more inviting by the second.

"Why not?"

 _Because it is taking all of my self control to keep my hands off of you. Susannah, you're too damned innocent to understand the danger you are in with me. Cecile was right. My attention is lethal._

"It's too easy for you to torture me with them."

Elijah's words were too easily lost as they descended upon the stunning piece of architecture called home for Elijah's family.

The mansion loomed proudly behind firm iron gates, flanked by rows of vibrant trees crowned with the beginnings of crismon. The cold beauty was a symbol of status, it set the ones living there above the people of Mystic Falls. The mansion from far away looked to be made of ice, a crystal palace. Filled to the brim with monarchs and ones of high status.

While she admired the building Elijah had already opened the car door for her. Leaning down, soothing his hand over the length of her waist, Elijah unbuckled the belt. The way the collar of his black jacket lay across his neck made her unable to sit still. She wanted to touch him, to trace the line between his skin and the dark lining of the fabric.

Helping Susannah to her feet, Elijah quickly turned away as a hybrid approached. His expression falling blank, unfamiliar in a way. Although Elijah never was particularly expressive, a warm chuckle and glint in his eyes showed otherwise. Now there was nothing.

"Should I alert Klaus-"

"I'm sure he is already aware," Elijah said wryly, glancing at the mansion with cool detachment.

Looking past the brother of his creator the Hybrid's mouth fell open. Inhaling the woman's intoxicating scent and the visual pleasure the glow her golden skin caused he was immediately drawn forward.

Lust the best of all deadly sins, the greatest relaxant, the greatest stimulant. And there the cause stood, examining the hybrid as if he were a unique creation and not a monster. With hair like liquid oil, curly and wild, eyes like an unnamed color and a fuck-me scent so palpable that he'd drop anything to bed her. The hybrid stepped forward, before immediately jerking away.

Meeting the eyes of Elijah Mikaelson was enough of a threat, the usual limitless patience nearly depleted. Elijah's arm sunk around her waist, letting his jealousy slip from his fingers. He regretted the action immediately. He was too explosive for her to touch him so intimately, even if she didn't realize it.

Elijah could feel the warmth of her skin pressed to his side. This could lead to wrong things, and places he had already banned himself from heading with the angel, As her one source of protection on earth, he had to stay away from her. That was how it worked. This, he could not stray from. Not again.

Releasing her almost immediately, Elijah ignored the submissive posture of the hybrid and jerkily walked towards the door of the mansion.


	6. Chapter 6

To Susannah this mansion was solely an alluring prison.

She watched as the girl with golden hair graced down the stairs. The air around her was one used to punctual service, her face poised to give an order, her cold blue eyes holding no form of kindness. She is every princess and every queen in all of history. Only made of superiority and power. Her gaze fell on Susannah, lifting her chin towards the little angel, she paused in step.

"Mother is cross with you Elijah. Your absence has not gone unnoticed." She crossed her arms and leaned forward as she spoke cuttingly, in her delicate voice. It was a quiet taunt, a poisoned glass of wine, meant to intoxicate and exsanguinate.

Elijah tilted his head. Sharpening his flaws and disappointments into daggers. "I have no obligation to remain in this home. For all intents and purposes I am close enough to be reached."

"But not to be found," The voice echoed from the top of the balcony with cold courtesy. The woman had long blonde hair much like the girl, with no warmth to be extended. This woman reeked of dark magic, it tainted her essence, her very existence.

"Mother," Elijah greeted not so fondly, his expression remaining unfeeling. Elijah's mother looked over at Susannah. Her thin lips twisted into a forced smile. Her narrow eyes bleak.

Susannah could feel her magic snake across her skin attempting to decipher what she was without asking. Her soul was just as black as her magic.

"Introduce your guest, Elijah."Is all she says. Her long dress grazing the marble flooring.

Placing a solid hand on the small of her back Elijah lead Susannah forward, directly under the Mikaelson Crest that hung proudly on the ceiling above. "This is the lovely Susannah."

Susannah inclined her head slightly in salutation. The Mikaelson Crest fought to subdue her beneath it's power, it was a way to restrain all who enter. Testing the unyielding straps of her binding magic, with a small tilt of her head Susannah destroyed the bind. Continuing forward , careful to avoid the devoid eyes of the caster.

However the recoil effect of the Original Witch's magic severely weakened her ability to hide the true extent of her abilities from the occupants of the mansion. The air grew heavy and taunt with almost all of her full capacity for power. Every being in the home, whether supernatural or human was affected.

Her power circled the home carrying her natural scent with it, seducing all who inhaled. It was an obscene phone call from nature. Honeysuckle, magnolia, violet, and herbs that amplified their surroundings. It was aphrodisiac and repressive, soft and violent at the same time.

It was a long lasting sin, a feverish hunger, a hunger that could not be sated. Standing on the tips of his toes besides his mother, Kol could not remove his eyes from the unearthly beauty who hovered near Elijah. He could not explain his inexplicable hunger only than to say he was staring at something truly divine.

Power swelled beneath her skin. So potent it reflected in the physical world. The air grew heavy, humid in her presence. A prism of light seemed to encompass her from head to toe.

With a savage grin, Kol let out an inhuman roar of bloodlust hurdling towards the angel with ferocity. A flash of fangs, a dark gleam in his eyes, the canines in his mouth sharpening to a fine line.

Kol was so close. He could see clearly the vein thumping beneath her skin, savory and thick. He was so close.

His trance was broken by the feel of wall crushing behind his back. Elijah's hands grip his throat with a strength he hadn't seen from his brother in a while. Kol could see the hunger, the same hunger as him, reflected in Elijah's eyes.

"Release me," Kol hisses in a voice unlike his own. He pushes back against Elijah, a thick tendril of eerie happiness snaking through him when Elijah's grip loosens.

Elijah's eyes grew cold and thorny. "Contain yourself," Every syllable was pronounced with bitterness. Kol's agile movements far too slow for Elijah.

Rebekah released a shaky breath, her long thin fingers clenching around the railing of the stairs. Her incisors dug into her bottom lip, her own blood pooling beneath her fangs. Her throat tightened as the suffocating scent circled her. Her eyes darted around, attempting to find some semblance of focus.

Landing on Finn and her mother, she watched as something in her mother's now darkened eyes shifted. As if her mother could feel her eyes she faced Rebekah. Begging silently to be released from this torture, Rebekah felt herself begin to move towards the scent. Even Finn moved forward, his dark eyes brimmed with thirst.

Susannah carefully worked her powers into a shield, that blocked her scent once again. Releasing a long suffering sigh when she saw the shoulders of the originals drop and fall back in step. The lust falling away and being replaced with nothing but the human beneath.

"What are you?" Rebekah demanded. Her blue eyes narrowed into slits.

Susannah turned her head to meet Elijah's eyes. He had released Kol, who leaned against the wall breathing heavily.

"She is a witch." The lie came so fluently, Susannah would have believed it if she hadn't known the truth.

There was silence until Elijah came over once again to her side. Taking care to introduce all his family, his demeanor was professional and cold. Susannah has yet to decide whether it was a good quality of not, to be able to be in the moment and then step out of it as Elijah so easily mastered. He removed himself in order to see things clearly. However this was his family, what more clarity could be acquired?

The question of what she was no longer was addressed.

Kol, seemingly regaining himself sauntered over. His dark eyes gleaming as a smirk graced his lips.

"I see everything Niklaus had said about your-acquaintance was an absolute understatement." He stood invading Susannah's space, his dark eyes, In a way that closely resembled the way Elijah's did, dipped over her body, pausing on the curve between her neck and shoulder. The temptress simply smelled like sex.

"I am Kol Mikaelson," He held out his hand, a volatile smile in place that screamed of his amusement to the more darker aspect of life. Susannah narrowed her eyes before placing her hand in his. As soon as there hands collided Susannah took measures to insure his control. Watching as he leaned at his waist to spare the limb of her hand a soft kiss.

"Should I be wary of your intentions Kol Mikaelson?"

"Yes." Kol answered almost immediately, he winked at the tiny temptress before smirking at his elder brother. Susannah, the angel Elijah had saved, seemed to have the talent of wrapping lesser beings around her finger.

Perhaps it was the suffocating abilities of her scent of the wayward jealousy that never seemed to waver, but Elijah's hunger took that moment to skyrocket to new proportions. The caged beast inside of his hurled itself against its chains. Part of him ready to dig his fangs into the soft flesh of her throat, another ready to lock her away from sight.

Elijah wasn't blind. Susannah was only paying enough attention to be considered polite. Kol was the one flirting. But there it was-a flash of warning that didn't just apply to Kol. It revealed a depth of feeling Elijah would not admit to himself or anyone else for that matter. A mute longing that went unnoticed by the one it was for.

Susannah having felt his thirst, jerked her head towards Elijah. Pulling away from Kol she moved to the Original that provided her with shelter and placed her hand on his jaw. Her touch caused his veins to materialize and rise to the surface. Elijah had been touched enough times to recognize the weight, and there she stood, so close, powerful and serene.

"Elijah?" Susannah looked up at him with gentle eyes. And the touch stole him. For Elijah felt as if he was no longer his but instead hers. The limitation of language kept him from describing the pit of fire that blossomed in his abdomen.

"I am fine," Elijah said shortly. Immediately falling back away from her addictive touch. He needed to unhook himself from her. From her palms that felt like fire on his skin, the discharge sending ripples down his arms and shoulders. Where did he think playing with abandoned angels would get him?

Certainly not a want this extensive. He had known before what is was to want something that could destroy you. Elijah didn't need anything from Susannah, but he wanted almost everything.

Confusion filled her eyes as she tilted her head to the side, dropping her hands to her sides. His family watched on, dissecting them.

"Susannah it was lovely to meet you." Esther said slowly, stealing Susannah's attention. Her narrow eyes were hardened but her expression was one of false kindness. Nodding her head, Esther didn't wait for any responses as she exited with Finn on her heels.

Unsettled by her own lack of control Rebekah glared at the beautiful woman that rested at her brother's side. Standing taller Rebekah flipped her blonde hair over her shoulder. Her eyebrows raised. "I suppose you aren't just here to showcase your newest lover."

Elijah glanced at his sister. The connection between them was limited, and not at all like the one between Rebekah and Niklaus. Sighing Elijah rubbed his forefinger and thumb together,"Susannah will require minimal aid in preparation for the ball."

Rebekah's hardened eyes narrowed. Raking her eyes over Susannah's form she gave a long suffering sigh," Fine."

Turning on her heel she began prancing back up the stairs, her long blonde hair swaying behind her.

Kol chuckled," Jealousy is not a dress my sister wears well. I apologize for her insolence."

"Perhaps it would provide more assistance for you to apologize for your hunger." Elijah's voice cut through the air with cold sharpness. They stood for a minute completely silent and agitated.

Kol held eye contact with his brother. "It is possible for me to simply talk to a woman without wanting to bed her, Elijah. But it appears you do not agree. Or are you so obsessed with her that you can't fathom how anyone else could fail to feel the same?"

Elijah didn't answer. A silken deadliness played in his dark eyes. Warning Kol to turn back, a warning Kol would not heed. Over the centuries it had been almost impossible for the younger Mikaelson to unsettle Elijah. Now he had a way.

Kol steps forward. Challenge dancing on his tongue. "Careful brother, jealousy blurs the focus."

Elijah's spine went ridgid.

"Goodbye _lovely_ Susannah, it was a pleasure to meet you." Kol smiled her way.

Susannah nodded,"It was nice to meet you aswell, Kol."

The back of Elijah's throat thirsted for blood. Elijah grabbed Susannah's hand. He needed her to touch him. He didn't care that her touch pushed him over the edge. He needed Kol to see, to see that whatever was between them was not to be tampered with.

Elijah waited until Kol retreated to one of the many hallways before turning on his heel. They had gotten what they came for, they no longer were required to stay.

The air outside felt lighter, and Elijah couldn't help but take in a deep breath.

"I can satisfy your insatiable hunger." He could feel Susannah, not even a step behind him. She was a brave angel, for standing so close to him and saying things like that. It was as if she were a temptress or a succubus or a siren or all three combined.

"I hunger no longer." Elijah immediately declined. Standing straighter he ignored the throbbing in his nether regions and continued towards the car.

"You shouldn't lie, Not to me."

"Then what do you wish for me to say, Susannah?" Frustration dotted his voice and his lips drew into a hard line.

Susannah stared at him emotionlessly. "As an angel-" she began her voice a mere quiet whisper, that tickled his ears, and made the original lean closer even though he could hear her clearly from where he stood. "I am flush with power. My power can be transformed into the energy you need to feed."As she spoke her eyes sparked with something feral.

"It can happen from a touch, kissing, but the greatest source is during the act of-"

"Intercourse? Are you referring to sex?"

"My power becomes concentrated for a very brief moment. It's all about the transfer of energy from one body to another." Susannah looked wildly uncomfortable. Her cheeks flushed a soft red. "All from my past home know this. I have never had to explain it to someone before."

Elijah coughed attempting to ease the tension out of the air between them. "Why are you telling me this?"

Susannah's eyes fell to the floor. "I wish to help you. That is my reason."

Elijah simply turned away and kept walking his body taut with control."I do not require your aid."

"Elijah-"

"I do not wish for your help, Susannah." His voice grew sharp and Susannah flinched from the flux of sudden anger in his voice.

"I-" Susannah soon rained silent, the words she wished to say falling away. Embarrassment flooded her, mortified her breath catches. "Of course," she speaks with sudden stability and pushes past Elijah to open the passenger side of the car door. Wanting to somehow escape the Original.

Elijah watches her sink into her chair. Her eyes purposely pointed forwards.

Sitting in the driver's seat he couldn't stop his eyes from pulling back towards her. Susannah's bottom lip was pulled between her teeth as she bit down on it, her brows furrowed into a small frown as she gazed out the window.

Sighing he looked out his window. His eyes focusing on a single white rose whose petals looked smooth and untampered with. The thorns on its stem stuck out proudly. Blades of grass hiding the rose's roots as the wind blew the flower against others of its kind. He had always believed angels to be as pure as the roses in the garden.

"I had assumed angels refrain from doing anything that could compromise their purity." He said suddenly. His voice sounded uncaring even to him. Part of him wished to grab her hand and soothe the embarrassment from her face. This was not his intention when declining her invitation.

"We do."

Elijah raised an eyebrow, confusion littering his eyes as his jaw tightened.

"It is known but not done. Doing something like that could make any angel less of an angel." Susannah's voice was quiet and she still refused to even glance in his general direction.

"Then why?" Elijah asks reverently. The need to touch is annoyingly back again. But Elijah knows if he reaches for her she will pull away.

"Because I was less of an angel the second I chose to fall."

 _How much farther could one possibly fall?_


	7. Chapter 7

It was only for a fraction of a heartbeat that his eyes absently drifted her way but that was long enough for the vampire to see everything-every detail he wasn't supposed to be seeing. Her arms were lifted threading through her long hair. She looks small with her shoulders hunched and her eyes focused ahead only half aware of the world outside of herself.

They are walking back towards the only place Susannah knows as home, the car ride from the mansion was a silent and tense one. Neither Elijah nor Susannah wished to tread into the reasoning behind the silence and the air of rejection.

He sees them. For only a fraction of a second.

Perhaps it is the sunlight beating down on her smooth honeyed skin. That exposed them, or maybe it was of Susannah's own violation.

They are bigger than Elijah ever dared to imagine. All of the sudden the notion that he had in his head of Susannah having white wings seemed absurd. For a space of a heartbeat the silence feels like silk, and then all at once it shatters under the noise of a wing unfurling. They were gold-bright, shinning, polished like he had never seen before.

And then they were gone, as if they had never been.

He quickly turned away and continued forward.

As if he had never seen.

Entering the home had been a relief he didn't know he needed. The line of his tightened shoulders relaxed as he moved to the kitchen in order to find something to ease his sinful hunger.

Susannah didn't follow him instead moving up the stairs to meet Arael, and make sure that being alone did nothing harmful to the younger angel. Her eyes betraying her by following Elijah.

Entering the room Arael had chosen for himself Susannah sees the young angel curled into a large blanket as he watched a movie play in front of him. His mouth parted in relaxation as some of his dark hair was swept in front of his blue eyes. His wings limply hanging across the width of the bed.

"My absence didn't cause any alarm, did it?" Susannah asked hesitantly, standing by the bed as she ran a hand over the soft feathers. Arael tensed at her soft touches, instantly recoiling away.

"Sister you mustn't worry so much about me." He didn't turn to look at her, his posture didn't change in the slightest, his reply was nothing but flat.

Susannah released a sad sigh. "I do not like the idea of you being alone. It is my responsibility to protect you and I cannot do that if I am not with you." _You're my little brother, my true family._

"And what of the responsibility to yourself?" Arael responded quickly. His gaze no longer focused on the images playing on the T.V, but on the angel who gave up almost everything to save him. And so the young angel forced a smile and pretended that not every day was a bad day.

"I am not sure I understand,"Susannah stated. Her hand grasping the bottom of her shirt, twisting it around repeatedly before releasing.

"You allegiance has always been with me, even when I least deserve it." Arael shifted uncomfortably his eyes darkening." Have you ever stopped to ponder how undeserving I am of your sacrifices? You allowed your place in heaven and in our family to be taken in order to serve your responsibility to me. I just wish for you to be selfish."

A bout of sadness filled Susannah. When had Arael grown more mature than half the garrison? And for a second it was like he was telling her to let go. Her hand tightened into a fist.

 _She didn't deserve to be selfish._

She blinked back the tears in her eyes,"You really are only a child when convenient."

Arael laughed a little before growing somber.

"Don't hate me forever, Susannah," He whispered." I couldn't bare that."

Leaning down she placed a solid kiss on her brother's forehead. "I never once hated you Arael and I never will."

"But you don't forgive me?" He asked with a sad, bitter smile.

"It's not your fault." Susannah denied. Because that small part of her, the selfish, dark, and wrong part of her was angry. Angry at all of the angels in heaven who did nothing for the humans on earth...even when she used to be one of them. Angry at their hatred. Angry at Lucifer for making black wings seem like a wrong thing. Angry at father. And some miniscule part of her was angry at Arael. Even if the anger was misplaced, it still existed.

She had crossed a line with her anger. It wasn't his fault, not really. Besides she knew Arael had already been punished enough. Guilt and shame filled her. He deserved her devotion and she hated that it was being taken away little and little every passing day by none other than Elijah.

Susannah could remember praying every night before she allowed the human notion of rest to overcome her. Begging for forgiveness and love and affection from her family. Not just for herself but for Arael. And one thing she could always count on from her prayers was the silence that came after.

Arael smiled, a smile that promised he felt the same. "You should talk to Elijah."

Susannah raised an eyebrow,"Why should I do that?"

"Because he is good to you." Arael said thoughtfully. "Men like him are far from being anything like angels and so men have the chance to be noble, in a way that angels cannot."

"You think he is noble?"

"I think he will be for you."

Susannah looked into her brother's eyes, as she bit down on her lower lip anxiously. "How do I speak of a past so- vile? Of a family so estranged?"

"He will understand and even if he doesn't he will try," Arael claimed with complete and utter confidence.

Susannah curled her legs beneath her body, feeling like more of a child than Arael. "You are so certain Elijah is- good. Even when you know just as well as I do that he has done things. Things that would turn any other angel away."

"I know you. If you thought Elijah was as destructive as his actions, we wouldn't be here. Angels see the beauty in everything. In your eyes, Elijah is beautiful."

Susannah smiled, a truly heavenly smile.

"You are so wise little brother." And she could see, in the darkness behind his large blue eyes, that he didn't believe her. She wished she could take that place away and replace it with light.

"And you are so kind sister."

Susannah turned to leave, standing in the place of the doorframe before she paused. Knowing she had much more that needed to be said.

"I'm sorry I blamed you for our fall." She seemed to cringe as the words fell out awkwardly and the tips of her ears burned in shame. "I'm sorry," She whispered. "I don't know why I could ever blame you for something out of your control or-"

"We shouldn't talk about this right now, Susannah." Arael said with hooded eyes. "You need to talk to Elijah."

"Elijah can wait."

"Susannah," Arael said looking at her sharply," Maybe the reason I won't _let you in_ is because you keep trying to _break in_."

"Arael listen to me." She moved forward gripping his small arms and staring into his eyes. "I need you to hear how sorry I am. I know it doesn't mean anything to you, and I know it doesn't erase the pain I've caused. But I have to say this. And I will keep saying this. I am sorry. I do not know how I became like this. I do not want to be like this. But I- I have always been selfish. I have always had it within me. I have always been obsessed with having my family with me because I did not know I could go on without them."

She seemed to begin to emotionally fall apart. "I discounted your pain and overvalued mine."

She has always been a bystander in family destruction, never realizing she herself possessed the capacity to inflict it.

Hot tears had started falling down her face, and Arael wanted to shrink away. This was the first time he had ever seen Susannah like this. Even when she laid broken down, covered in blood at their family's feet. Not one tear had fallen from her eyes.

And when they looked at her she had seemed to shine with determination, for Arael.

Arael could almost hear her words, the words she had spoken with such strength as she had took him in her arms and fallen. **_"I am Susannah. I am not afraid."_**

"Go to Elijah."

Arael turned away. His body language showing that he was done talking. Susannah ran a tired hand over her tear stained face and left with heavy steps.

* * *

Elijah sat at the small wooden round table in the kitchen. A glass of cherry red blood sitting in front of him. Lifting the cup to his lips, he tipped it slowly allowing it's continents to flow, soothing the hunger so deeply ingrained in him. He had heard everything. The pain lined so thickly behind Susannah's and Arael's voices. It was like smiling after being slapped by the one you love most.

He never liked hearing others pain, especially the kind he knew he couldn't comfort.

He had felt the vibration of Susannah's tears, a kind of pain hive. Rustling inside of her. Elijah couldn't help but wonder when he had grown so attuned to her.

Elijah knew he had no place getting involved in the wounds of family so he remained silent when she appeared in front of him. Her eyes still watery with tears, her lips still trembling and her fist still clenching. Instead he pretended he couldn't see any of it. He would only do more harm otherwise.

Susannah instead watched him blankly. A million thoughts played through her mind but she decided to focus on the Blood in the cup that Elijah drank heartily from. Blood was such an essential part of vampires lives. Many lived only to find a way to supply it. In hopes that eventually the hunger would fade, only to realize it would never fully cease. "I assume it would be difficult, relying on blood to survive."

"In the beginning it was much more burdensome." He replied after a moment. His dark eyes pinned her as he gestured to the seat next to him. She wanted to ask of this 'beginning' anything to get him from seeing the residue of agony that laid openly on her face.

Moving slowly, Susannah sunk into the seat, her body situated to face Elijah.

Her own panic at having to speak stole the thoughts from her head. Sitting in silence, a silence that always seemed to draw Elijah closer because it reminded him of the eye of a storm. He had always had a particular adoration for any he could be silent with.

Inhaling deeply she turned away from him, It's not that she didn't want to look at him. It's that she didn't want to be seen.

Swiping her tongue over her lips nervously, feeling the electricity of his eyes. Susannah had believed she would never truly trust anyone. Yet, the decision had been made. Something deep inside of her was convinced he was safe. Even if she knew trust was really only self delusion.

"I have forgotten everything I wanted to say."

"No you haven't," Elijah tapped his index finger on the polished wood thoughtfully. "You Just do not want to speak."

His tone was rough and seductive. And when he touched her it felt different from all of the other ones. There was more purpose, more meaning, more realization. Her stomach fluttered and she wanted to fall into him.

"You will fail me, just as everyone else has."

"I will." Elijah said openly. His eyes were still dark, and his expression was still the same. Yet something felt different. So importantly and significantly different. All he could see was her, with her skin aglow and her lips parted. It was more than any man could appreciate.

His touch grew more confident even when his words flattened. "Why? His voice was a ghost in the quiet. "Why give me your trust when you know it's such an easy thing to shatter."

"Perhaps the easy giving of it will make it harder to break."

His touch kept drawing a harsh breath out of her. And for a second she liked being lost in him. It tickles and she almost smiles, beginning to feel hazy as his fingertips grace up the junction between her shoulder and neck. Pausing to feel the blood thumping in her veins. Her hands moved involuntarily to the labels of his jacket drawing him closer.

His hand feels cold against her heated skin as he wraps it around her throat. His fingers caressing the hair at the nape of her neck. It was like she was being owned. He was patient yet thoroughly dominant with his movements. As if he was saying _I am in charge. And being in charge meant controlling my own urges too. Maybe more than I'll ever attempt to control you with._

Her eyes met his. Elijah can see she is trying to be indifferent.

He moves his hand beneath her chin, when she attempts to turn away he pulls her back. He soothes his thumb over the skin of Susannah's lips. Enjoying the way wide sweet curve of her smiling lips part. He wished he could release his control and taste her. Divulge into her.

If he kissed her he would see how important she is. However Susannah's kiss would kill them, and his consent would sign the death certificate.

The authority Elijah always kept in his palms was giving way to the feel of her skin. He felt as if he was being consumed by fire, a fire he wasn't ready to relinquish control to. So he released her. Even if his own mind and body hated him for it.

"Sometimes I don't understand you." Susannah said hesitantly.

"Why is that?" Elijah asked clearing his throat and adjusting his jacket.

Her eyes search his face. Before her gentle words fan over him. "You never say what you mean."

"Not saying what you truly mean keeps you alive."

Susannah frowned, her brows furrowing. "Is that all you think about? What it takes to survive?"

"That's what it means to be a Mikaelson, Susannah. No one ever wins; just survives."

"Has it always been like that?" She inquired. To read Elijah you had to look into the full intensity of his eyes and even the getting lost was an easy task.

"It seems like it has." Elijah leaned in his chair his face contemplative. "I can faintly remember the ways of my home before we changed. My siblings and I had our own language. We could communicate and exchange without one word being spoken. Of course some bonds were stronger than others, but we were together. I don't think at the time we realized how lucky we were. Not until it began to all fall apart into nothingness."

Susannah bit her tongue. He spoke with so much warmth yet desolation. As if he knew the years had strained and torn the original bonds between his family.

"Did- did becoming a creature of darkness cause this?" Susannah placed her hand over his.

Elijah chuckled bitterly. He almost wished it was that easy. To blame vampirism. To blame his own birth-giver.

"We caused this ourselves. We were foolish. We fought brutally, attacking each other's weaknesses. Only family knows the exact placement of the heart. The tragedy is that we could still live with the force of our ire. The infuriation at being born with one another. It's a kinship that last through life and death, immutable, unchanging, no matter how great the misdeed or betrayal. Blood cannot be denied. Not with our family."

Susannah shook her head. "I do not see how you can blame yourself. Not when this was forced upon you."

"Some of the damage could have easily been prevented. Had I let go, and let Niklaus have a prize neither of us deserved. We fought tooth and claw, over her."

"Who?"

Elijah looked into Susannah's eyes. A part of him wished to disappear into the memory of Tatia. But he couldn't even begin to conjure her, not when something so utterly delectable sat in front of him. Begging to be seen now. Now he could drift into the tenderness of Susannah's hands on his, the worry in her eyes. He was an original. He had been wounded far, far worse, emotionally and physically. But now he couldn't even truly dive into the depth of his past pain, now there was an angel with skin golden as if the sun was apart of her and eyes as colorful as a beautiful soul tearing into him for daring to get himself hurt.

"Tatia." Her name didn't send the same dagger through his stomach.

"You loved her." It wasn't a question. Susannah already knew he did.

"Without preamble but even in love I am not the kind to forget the tarnish on the reverse side of the brightest coin."

Susannah raised an eyebrow at that. "What was it like...to love someone. Someone not apart of your family?" Her wayward mind shooting immediately to Arael, the only person she truly considered family.

"It consumes you in every way imaginable." Elijah said with a dark tone. His eyes immediately finding hers. "It is something I refuse to believe in any longer."

Susannah could feel him telling her something deeper than his words. Elijah Mikaelson would do anything in his power to keep from falling in love.

"I can comprehend that. Once bitten and twice shy. However if it was me...I'd get a bigger dog and bite back."


	8. Chapter 8

"You're thinking about me." Susannah said from behind him, taking light slow steps. The dress she wore swept beautifully across the glimmering tile floor as she moved.

Elijah hadn't forgotten she could feel such things, he just merely didn't acknowledge it. However, In short moments he could almost forget she was an angel. Then he would look at her and see the intensity within that promised she was unearthly.

Considering the nights were her face was carved into his head, and her touch into his skin, he couldn't help but wonder if his thoughts kept her up at night.

When he turned to face her his throat tightened and his fingers flexed. Her makeup was kept to a minimal, reserved to a sweep of mascara that elongated her eyelashes enough to grant the ability to make a simple flutter pass as seduction. A gold coat of eyeshadow that looked like peering at the sun through a jar full of honey. Lips painted the color of pomegranate seeds which immediately sent his mind into a state of sensual intoxication.

She had always been, from the moment she fell into his life, his idea of perfection.

"Does it bother you? Knowing that I think about you so frequently?" His voice came out jagged as he subtly moved closer.

Susannah smiled, and if eyes are gateways to the soul, the lips are the same thing for the body. They are softness, passion, and the promise of sweetness to come. "It is actually fairly comforting."

Elijah's eyes bounced to the wall behind her, focusing on one of his brother's murals. He doubted a painting would ever be enough to contain Susannah.

"You're beautiful." Elijah said with a heavy voice. His eyes moving from the floor up the length of her curved body. His tongue moved across his lips as he met her eyes.

Her beauty was astonishing, not in just her looks, no, that was too evident.

Her head fell to the side, and she watched him back just as closely as he did her. "Thank you."

He felt wrong for the way he wanted her, which was in the bluntest ways.

"Unfortunately, beautiful isn't enough of a word."

Her eyebrows raised and a laugh fell off her lips.

"Then what is?"

Elijah's lips stretched into a small warm smile. "I have absolutely no idea."

There are so many other things he wants to say. He wants to tell her about how beautiful he finds the pieces of her he doesn't understand, or the parts that weigh heavily on her shoulders, the parts that can only be noticed in a stolen glance. All those small pieces added up together is what made her so irresistible.

Elijah's lashes lifted. As his gaze drifted over her, it was focused but all too brief, because he looked away, a muscle working along his jaw.

Digging his hand into his pocket he feels for the chain of the necklace he intends to give her.

Without asking he moves behind her, brushing her hair over he shoulder. Drawing the necklace around her neck, he fastened the clasp. The amber felt cool against her sweltering skin. Lifting it she rotated the pendant, watching as it caught the light.

"It's lovely," she says in a voice only for him.

Elijah steeped himself in denial, but his body knew. His fingers assumed its usual ache in her presence and he almost caved in to his rampant desire.

"I must go to my place among my siblings." Elijah whispers into her hair.

"Then go." She whispers back, and pushes him away.

Composing himself as best he could, he turned away. And with every step the colors that make up the surrounding world went duller and duller.

* * *

Drinking heartily from the glass in her hand, Susannah couldn't help the smile that danced on her face. She had never attended a ball before, or anything like it in nature. Standing around an unfamiliar group she watched as a woman entered with a man on each arm. A hush fell over the attendees as all eyes turned towards the woman.

Heated whispers fought through the air. The silence was interrupted by a voice Susannah knew more intimately than anyone else's.

"Welcome," Elijah called with wide spread arms."Thank you for joining us. You know, whenever my mother brings our family together like this, it is tradition we commence the evening with a dance."

From his place on the balcony Elijah could clearly see Susannah who hovered near the sidelines.

"Tonight's pick is a centuries old waltz, so if all of you could please find yourself a partner."

There she was, so radiant and beautiful that he could not see anyone else. Suddenly the world seemed like too much of a chore. He didn't want to be here at this ball, with people he didn't want to talk to and messages he didn't particularly wish to deliver. He didn't want to dance with young ladies he didn't know, and he didn't want to make polite conversation with those he did. All he wanted was his angel and her smile. The one she seemed to be giving away too freely to all who were brave enough to approach.

"Your eyes have yet to stray away from her," Rebekah called coldly."Have you really grown that attached?"

"I haven't the slightest idea of what you mean, _dearest_ sister."

Rebekah laughed, it was a cacophony of hollow metallic sounds that reverberated through her entire body. "I just don't see why you carelessly waste your time with such a vulgar slut."

He faced Rebekah sharply, anger coiling in his muscles. It swept through him like a wave of molten lava, suddenly hungry for destruction. She knew from the instant the words left her mouth that they had hit their mark.

His hand clenched the railing as his eyes sharpened into deadly slits."Don't you dare, Rebekah."

Elijah stepped forward, and for a second Rebekah was breathless.

"You're lowering yourself for her." A kind of envy filled Rebekah's bones as she watched Susannah's dark hair sway against her golden skin." A mundane harlot-"

Rebekah's voice faltered at the darkness of her brother's eyes. Elijah had always been the most tolerant of the Original family, but something in him blazed with a rigid fury. Swallowing thickly, ignoring the pinch of fear that hit the back of her neck she stood taller, tossing her blonde hair over her shoulder.

"You can't really ignore that fine diamond collar placed on you. For awhile it may look beautiful and bring all the envious stares you desire at your obvious wealth. However it's a rather heavy and burdensome thing, don't you think?"

 _Jealousy is rather heavy and burdensome, don't you think._

Rebekah's hand unconsciously shot up to touch her neck. A frown creasing her face as she smoothed down her long dress.

"Not at all. In fact I hardly notice it."

An unpleasant laugh fell from Elijah's mouth. His sister had always been one to praise aesthetic. "One day that beautiful diamond collar is going to get too tight. I can't wait to see it choke you. Otherwise it won't be interesting anymore."

There is a hint of jest in his smooth voice, yet at the same time one could not possibly find the truth in his words.

Rebekah narrowed her eyes and smirked, looking beautifully vicious. "If you live to see it that is." Her blue eyes move to where Susannah stood.

Elijah merely tilts his head, his dark eyes aflame with a raging heat.

"Careful brother, your eyes haven't been the only ones chasing after her shadow."

Rebekah lifted her dress and walked away, a small smirk gracing her lips.

Elijah's eyes fell back over to where she stood. Only to see the truth in his sister's words.

"What's your name?" The Salvatore asked above the roar of music. His dark hair giving way to blue eyes.

Susannah leaned close. "My name is wind," she whispered. "And rain. And fire and dust. My name is a snippet of a song half remembered."

He chuckled a low, delightful sound. She was drunk and silly, and so full of the glory of being young and alive and beautiful. Damon had kept a steady eye on her throughout the night. He was sure every man had glanced at her at least once. He was even more sure he had never seen her before.

"I have no name that you need to know," She purred playfully. Her smile made of light and warmth.

He grasped her by her wrist, running a thumb along the sensitive skin underneath. "Then let me call you Mine for a dance or two."

She grinned widely but then he was in between them. A tall, and powerfully built person. A person she immediately recognized by the way his feet struck the earth. He ripped the stranger's hand off her wrist. His face was so carefully blank- no not blank, calm with a lethal rage. "She is spoken for."

The man tilted his head in a sudden wave of realization, sending a wink her way. "My mistake."

Elijah waited for him to grow far enough in distance before taking a large step towards Susannah, casting a shadow over her. His body remained stiff and tensed as he continued to stare at Susannah with heated eyes.

Carefully prying the empty glass out of Susannah's hands before placing it on a table nearby, he took hold of her waist.

Suddenly, classical music flowed into the noisy ballroom signaling the dance of the evening. Gentlemen immediately requested a hand in dance while spectators encircled the dancing couples. Elijah pulled her body into his, leading her to the dance floor. He didn't ask like a gentlemen would have, like he should have.

Her delicate steps were small and elegant. Dancing like light on water,"You're a very graceful dancer."

Susannah only smiled softly at the compliment, tilting her face down almost as if she were ashamed of her talent. "I have a good partner."

It was hard to focus on much other than Elijah's bare hands on her skin, but when she looked above his shoulder she could see Esther on the balcony. Watching her.

"There's a lot I don't know about you." Susannah leaned closer, her lips brushing against as she spoke into his ear. Her breath was warm and he could feel the smile on her lips.

"That I cannot deny," Elijah responded." However, the same could be said for you."

"When someone knows your story. They know you and they can hurt you." Susannah made sure their eyes met.

"Why are you so afraid of your past?"

"It's kind of hard to explain." She studied the people passing by, each familiar yet foreign- all holding little universes of their own inside them. She heard herself talking before realizing she had started. "Do you remember when you were little and you were expected to love something? No one asked you why. You could spend hours and hours on it, and nobody worried about whether you were going to turn it into something. It didn't have to be about anything... _productive_. You could just paint or dance or collect bugs or sea glass and it was just a lovely thing?"

A sudden expression of desolation found its way upon her face, and her shoulders slumped.

Elijah couldn't remember the thing, but he could remember the feeling. "Yes, I do remember."

"And then responsibilites come in. And for a while you can handle it, because it's only your responsibilities and no one else's. I wanted the sum of all my vices to be mine and mine only. But, there are always people who can't handle the responsibilities placed on them so you have to shoulder them too, because if you don't who will? And their obligations become your own. And others expectations of you rise, and somewhere along the way you keep falling down because the burden you're carrying is too heavy. And every time you fall down, someone kicks you and criticizes you, and eventually you can't get up again."

Tears consumes her eyes but she quickly blinked them away.

"Susannah-"

"Let's just say while I was down. The people I cared for, they did more than kick me."

Elijah's grip on her body tightens, as she stares at the void behind his shoulder.

"And the worst part is I don't blame them." Susannah laughed coldly," I don't blame them at all. They did what they thought was right."

Susannah suddenly inhaled heavily and shook her head forcing herself out of her memories.

"I'm afraid of my past because there is nothing stopping it from happening again. Absolutely nothing."

Elijah sighed, before pulling Susannah into him. He wanted to tell her that he wouldn't allow that to happen. That he would protect her. But he couldn't promise that, especially when he knew he wouldn't always be able to hold it up.

All he could smell was pure white roses, the ones from the garden. The ones that had wilted petals and a thorny stem.

But all too soon time passed, and their moment for dancing came to an end as she was whisked into his brother's arms.

Elijah's dark eyes follow them, watching the way his brother leans close and grips his angel tightly. Forcing a smile at his new partner, who clumsily moved about, Elijah tried to control his envy before it turned to malice.

"Hello, love." Klaus greeted, after appraising her features for a solid moment. Inhaling greedily, he wants to fall into the scent of her. She smelled like any vampires perfect bait.

"Hello, Niklaus." Was her response. Apart of Klaus wanted to correct her, but somehow her saying his name wasn't as much of a bother as it could have been.

Her voice was quiet and small, her gaze never reaching his eyes.

"Not many willingly greet me of that name." Klaus found himself saying with his accented drawl, a smirk firmly in place.

"It is the only name I know you by," Susannah countered. They glided across the floor, the music spinning around them background noise to their conversation.

"Do you know who I am?" He questioned with haughtiness lying in his tone.

Susannah laughed, it wasn't real but it wasn't fake either. It was just there." I have an idea."

"Oh," He said, his expression light. "And what is that?"

"One of a kind."

Klaus twirled her before pulling her back. "You flatter me, love."

Shrugging her shoulders she swayed with the hybrid. "I find your amorality fascinating."

Klaus stared down at her with amusement. "Whispers have it that you are a witch."

Susannah tried her best to control her outward reactions and instead focused on Elijah's back as he moved with his new partner. "You seem surprised."

Niklaus chuckled. "For a moment I almost believed you were something else."

Her muscles tightened at his words, and the heavy sensation of worry catapulted through her.

"What else could I possibly be?" Her eyes focused on a small invisible piece of lint of his shoulder.

Klaus's face hardens as he mulls over something before a cheery smile takes place on his face.

Susannah didn't get an answer, instead she was turned into the arms of the man who had originally asked her to dance. Elijah soon found the Salvatore's presence to be overly irritating. He had never held any ounce of respect for the Salvatore mostly due to his misguided sense of frevert entitlement, but seeing him touch Susannah caused Elijah's ire to burn hot.

"You seem cozy with the originals." The man with the deep blue eyes said, his hands moving boldly across her open back. Damon made sure to meet Elijah's eyes as he gripped Susannah's hip, dragging her body to his.

A satisfaction filled the Salvatore when Elijah's body straightened.

"Is that a problem?" She asked, drawing the syllables out, her lips caressing them as if they were made of Godiva chocolates.

"It will be." He answered almost immediately.

"And why is that?" Susannah inquired sharply, feeling threatened.

The man with the blue eyes smirked. "The names Damon Salvatore. Whenever you're ready be sure to tell me yours."

Dragging his hand over the length of her arm before releasing Susannah and swaggering away. Letting her head fall to the side she watched on with baited interest.

* * *

Elijah could see Susannah as he stalked over to where Ms. Gilbert stood. Whenever he looked at the young doppleganger he most often saw Tatia's shadow, Ms. Gilbert had the tendency to play her cards just as his first love had done. The same cards that had weaved him and Niklaus into a dangerous rivalry.

"Hello, Ms. Gilbert, are you enjoying your evening thus far?"

Elena turned towards him, her eyes large and doe like.

She shifted in step, a polite smile forming on her face as she answered with fake happiness. "Yes, I am."

For some reason seeing Tatia's ghost did nothing to him. All he could think about was roses, specifically ones sharp enough to break skin.

"Elena. I understand my mother requested to see you." Elijah's face grew in seriousness, as a calm control soared through his voice.

"Um, yeah. Why is something wrong?" He watched intertwine her hands together as she smiled loosely.

"Well, her ability to forgive my brother after everything he's done to destroy this family strikes me as a little strange to say the least." Something in Elijah's expression grew dark and somber. As if to seek reassurance his eyes fell back to Susannah. Turning back towards Elena, he wasn't shocked to see her staring at Susannah.

A bitterness passed her eyes before she flinched away as if surprised by her own jealousy.

"Do you think it's an act?" Elena asked innocently. Her eyes continually glancing back towards that stunning woman in red. Her envy was bizarre and unnatural in a way, only because no one could truly compare themselves to someone who looked like that and not feel lesser.

"It has me asking questions I'd never thought I'd ask. Can I depend on you to tell me what she says?" Elijah's eyes feel heavy on Elena's skin and she wants to cower away.

"Of course," Elena says after a broken second. "I'll find you later. Okay?"

Elijah waits for Ms. Gilbert to leave, before inspecting the crowd for her, only to see Susannah is nowhere in sight.

* * *

The second the sage was lit her grace raged inside of her.

Magic.

Susannah was fairly knowing in the ways of earthly magic, and the dark uses of them, especially by the hands of a witch like Esther Mikaelson.

The arguing of spirits thundered as she moved closer to the door that concealed Esther and the doppleganger. They wanted her to leave, but they couldn't force her. She was above them.

Closing her eyes she allowed a part of her to leave her body.

Astral projection.

Her invisibility to the ones inside of the room was a mere perk, as she watched on curiously.

Esther sat, her body thrown elegantly across the chair, in the same way one would suspect of an ice queen. Her blonde hair hung in thin ringlets as she leaned forward conspiratorially. "I understand Rebekah shared with you the story of my family. How I upset the balance by turning my children into vampires."

The doppelganger swallowed a breath as goosebumps spotted her arms. "She said you did it to protect them from the werewolves."

Susannah had never liked the idea of doppelgangers, they mere life predicted misfortune. And no matter how much they fought to deny it they would always be a copy of another person.

"That is true." Esther said, her eyes glazing over," But in no time at all, they began to feed on human blood. They ravaged the town with no remorse. Eventually, Niklaus turned against me."

Susannah clenched her jaw shut, forcing herself to remain as still as possible. Esther couldn't even see her own faults behind her need to gain revenge, her soul had been twisted and darkened and smudged. She truly believed that her children turned against her, when she forced this life upon them. When she gave them no other alternative.

"How are you going to kill him? He's immortal." Elena licked her lips, something akin to satisfaction running over her face.

Esther grinned," It will take time, magic, and your assistance."

Frowning Elena crossed her arms defensively," What do I have to do with it?"

"My children believe I am holding this ball in celebration of our reunion. But in truth I've gathered them to perform a ritual. The first step requires the blood from the doppleganger. Only a drop. It's essence will be in the champagne toast later this evening." Picking up a simply decorated dagger she reached for Elena's hand.

"Will you do it, or shall I?"

Elena looks away, her face twisted as she considered her options. Slipping her gloves off her deft fingers she held her hand out to Esther.

Grimacing when Esther pushes the dagger through the membrane of her skin, she watches as Esther squeezes the blood into a glass chalice.

"Elijah," Esther said releasing Elena. Susannah immediately tenses at the sound of his name twisted with disgust. "Is more suspicious than the others, so he may need more persuasion. But they must all drink at the toast in order to be linked as one."

Dread rushed through Susannah as her wings begged to be released.

"What do you mean 'linked as one'?" Elena inquired biting her lip as she cradled her hand to her stomach.

"You said yourself Klaus can't be killed. But tonight's spell links all my children together, so that if one goes they all do."

Susannah dug her hand into her palm drawing blood.

"What?"

"I love my family, Elena." Susannah glared at Esther, there was no hint of feeling towards her children." However, they are an abomination. I betrayed nature when I created them. It's my duty to kill them."

Susannah suddenly felt very sick. Balance was a very tricky thing and to mess with it was a high stakes risk. The second vampires had been created, balance took means to restore itself. If Esther did what she planned on doing, Susannah had no doubt that all vampires would fall along with them. And the testy balance of earth would be rocked once again.

Susannah fell back into her body and jerked upwards, hiking up her dress she rushed through the crowds searching for any Mikaelson she could find.


	9. Chapter 9

Hatred would have been easier.

His hatred has always taken many shapes; sometimes soft and familiar, like a round stone he had caressed for so long that it was perfectly smooth and polished. Sometimes it was thin and sharp like a blade that could slice through anything. Sometimes it had the form of a star, radiating in all directions.

With hatred he would have known what to do.

The beat of rushing hearts and slow music playing over this unknown feeling was quickly becoming a sickly and ghostly melody. Grinding his teeth together he spoke quietly. "How do you know of this?"

When he looks at her she looks like divine absolution, careful; meleager.

"I heard her speak of ending you. All of you."

"You lie."

Klaus's voice is a twisted void of darkness and hatred. His jaw is tightened and his hands clenched as if barely restraining himself. His eyes burn a molten gold, but in all his chaos there is calculation.

She doesn't as so much as flinch. A goddess would never flinch from the words of a mortal, so why should she?

"You know I'm not." Her voice is whimsical and sweet. Staining the air like Hades's forbidden pomegranate would stain the mouth and tongue. No one should wield that kind of power with their voice.

She is dangerous, more dangerous than any other woman he has ever known throughout all his years. She was the type of woman that could bring every man she met to their knees and simply smile; that same smile she had given him before and forgiveness would be immediately given.

"Are you telling me for Elijah?" Klaus chuckled bitterly," Is that who you wish to save?"

A shot of resentment courses through him. _Who would save the bastard child?_

"It is not about who I wish to save," she walks until she stands directly in front of him. She is so close all Klaus can see is her. The hybrid could see a potential playground of wars fought over a face like hers, a man would work himself into the ground for it, go to his knees and beg to keep it, endure torture to protect it. Poison his brother for a face like hers. "But about who I wish to see perish."

Klaus raises an eyebrow. Her response was single minded, vicious, more importantly unexpected. Nonetheless he chuckles.

"You must love him." His eyes are far away, and he speaks as though he is only retaining useful information. "To hold that much anger over _someone's_ desire to harm him."

"He offered me a home when I had none." Susannah's eyes lifted to him and Klaus could swear for a second they were pure silver. "You think my reliance on him somehow correlates to love. Not only do I not know him, he doesn't know me. I am merely grateful."

It was true. Susannah could tell anyone the exact shade of brown that best matched Elijah's eyes, or the sound his steps made when hit the ground, or how his expression softened when he looked at her, or the way he carried himself when he thought no one was watching. That she knew. She was clueless however to where his interest lied. She didn't know the miniscule details that all amounted to make him.

"If not for him then why?"

"An angel's wrath is retribution, not pointless violence," Her voice is calm and ethereal." It is punishment for a perceived crime, and your mother had earned my well deserved wrath."

Klaus stares openly at her. A part of him assumed she was such. He cannot help but see her in a different light. A light he wants to smother. He wanted to do so quite badly. Wanted to dirty Susannah up, sully her name, pull down her halo and tug her off her cloud. He wanted this angel to be human, on level with the rest of them. At the same time however he wanted to protect her divinity. It was most of what he could feel as he stared at this angel, a fire aching in his bones. One which his greedy fingers ached to grab hold of.

His grin was devilish and promised hell. "I will gather my siblings and keep them from drinking."

"I wish I was there for you." Her voice was gentle and sudden as if looking at him made her realize something incredibly important, and despite the dire situation his body relaxed. "I wish I would have been there to cast my wrath on Mikael the second he intended to lay his hands upon you with violence lying in them. I wish I would have been there to sweep you away from here and save you from the horrors you went through."

Klaus's stomach dropped and his throat tightened. "You saw?" His voice raw and hollow at the same time.

"You just watched?" His voice seemed to finally regain its natural aggressiveness.

Her head dropped and she looked away shamefully. "I didn't see a thing...I just felt. There was going to be another big shift of balance on earth, angels have always been attuned to matters on earth."

Drawing his hands into a tight fist he slid forward with venom hanging off his tongue. "Tell me, was your view any good from your pedestal made of clouds?"

"I was just following orders." It was not an excuse, her eyes told Klaus she would be ready to face the full force of his anger.

"Why are you telling me this?"

"Because you believe I am only here for Elijah. I owe Elijah a great deal, but I also am indebted to you. I do not believe that woman deserves to walk after you payed for her sins."

Klaus chuckles darkly, his eyes slanted. "Elijah would not be fond of such an attachment."

"I do not center around him."

The hybrid just shook his head as if Susannah was missing a vital piece of a puzzle.

Klaus turns on his heel, his hand curled around the silver handle before pausing."I may be the black sheep of my family, but the white sheep aren't as white as they like to appear."

A frown took form across her face."I do not understand what you mean."

"Many think I am a monster, But I'm just shots at a party. I remove inhibitions. Elijah is just as bad as me, perhaps worse. He hides behind falling morals and false honor while he rips out the heart of those who deceive him. Show him disloyalty and he will show detachment."

Susannah laughed, a contagious laugh. Her hair whipping against her cheeks. The glass of champagne gripped in her hand sloshing around noisily. "You think the darkness in your family frightens me? One thing you should know about angels Niklaus is that we are quick to fall when we need to. Humans have the tendency of associating pure, celestial, and divine creatures with loving things. Many forget that demons are all of these as well."

* * *

The guest quickly separated into two distinct seas as Niklaus passed by, heading directly towards him. Elijah couldn't help but wonder if they were even aware they parted like they would for royalty. The wavering scent of Susannah drifted through the air around his brother in short yet heavy bursts.

Stopping a foot in front of him, Niklaus shot him a wild grin. One that promised bloodshed and unadulterated violence. "At the toast signifying the end of the night do not drink from the glass given to you."

"I find your self entitlement that grants you the ability to command me endearing." Elijah says with an ever charming chuckle, his eyes moving through the crowd.

"Unless of course you wish to be a pawn in the hands of our mother's spell I suggest listening to my entitled commands." Klaus digs back, settling his hand into one of his pockets. A glimpse of blonde curls catches his eye for a moment only to be gone once again.

Elijah froze for a second, before a bitter grimace took ahold of his face. "What has our mother done."

Klaus takes a second to examine his elder brother. He seems completely unbothered by this newest development, but Klaus can see the vague ghost of suffering mixed in with guilt. The guilt was illogical, but it didn't matter, not to him. Elijah had always seemed to believe the blame of the family landed on him, he wouldn't have it anyway else. A sentimental fool he was beneath all those complicated layers.

"Nothing as of yet. She intends to do a ritual that will link us as one-"

"And kill us." Elijah finishes. His jaw tightens and resentment thickens inside of him. The vision of his family once more shattering into sharp slices of glass, impossible to pick up all the growing useless pieces. There was pain but no surprise.

"I should have expected as much from that whore."

Elijah has to fight himself to remain quiet at the term applied to their mother. He found himself questioning if he should ever refer to her as 'mother', or adopt her name as her only identifier.

"How did you figure this out?"

Klaus looked at Elijah closely for a second. "How much do you actually know about Susannah, Elijah?"

The question held its purpose in throwing Elijah off. Clearing his throat he squared his shoulders. "Why don't you tell me what I need to know."

The hybrid is silent for a moment, gathering his thoughts.

"I like her. She's damaged and broken, but I like them a little dirty and stained." He gave Elijah a lewd wink, hinting at the double entendre in his words. Klaus is gone before Elijah can say any more, but his last words still burn his ears.

It was increasingly difficult to picture Susannah as broken or damaged. He knew she had a past filled with violence, but more often than not she didn't reflect that. Susannah seemed to be the master at showing certain people only one part of her they would have more common ground with. While she gave Elijah scattered pieces of everything, leaving unconnected ends with no real beginning.

The image of Susannah is dashed away from his mind by the sensation of isolation folding beneath him.

 _"I am hurting you to make you better, Elijah. To sharpen your wit. To intensify your effort. To keep you off balance, never sure what is going to happen next. So you, my son, can be ready for anything. This will make you determined to win no matter what."_

The words Mikael had once said to him when he was nothing more than a village boy resurfaced. He remembered lying on the ground, his face and body covered in mud. His sword thrown halfway across the field. Cuts littering his body, as Mikael dug his sword into Elijah's thigh purposely drawing blood.

That same feeling resurfaces. Inadequacy.

Hie eyes move over the ballroom, accustomed to the pattern of searching for her, he cannot help but be surprised to see her standing so carelessly among a group of humans. Her smile is wide and inventive as she talk animatedly to those around her. They all lean in, completely interested in her words. She resembles a pillar of light, and even with the growing sense of disturbance inside of him, he cannot help but take a second to admire her.

He wants to call her over to him but doesn't. They deserve her light more than he does.

Susannah, as if feeling him, casts her eyes his way. The smile on her face immediately vanishes as she offers a quick goodbye to her companions. Her steps are slow as she mulls over Elijah. His eyes are more tired than she'd seen before and it does more than simply worry her.

The angel can't help but be a little surprised by her immediate need to go to him. That was more that simple gratitude.

"You seem troubled," Susannah starts slowly. "Of course that is a primary aspect of your personality so sometimes I ignore it."

It was meant to be a joke but Elijah couldn't bring himself to even force a smile. He is facing a wall instead of her, and she can't help but notice his clenched hands. Nails digging deep, hard, scratching. Pain to replace pain.

She catches his hands in hers, loosening his fist.

"Why are you here?" His eyes dart over her shoulder to the carefree humans. She could be enjoying her time instead of wasting it on him. His voice was quiet. He wasn't a loud man. He rarely needed to be. His stature was imposing it was almost errie in contrast to the softness of his touch when directed towards Susannah. It had always been pretty easy for Susannah to get him to smile, but his smile never lasted for more than a second.

"Because I care about your suffering." Her voice doesn't hold the weight of her words.

His body unwillingly went still at her words- his entire world went still- he only realized he had been staring when she withdrew slightly. His fingers tightened on her small hands. It was so damn easy to forget about the world when you stared into the eyes of an angel- no, not just any angel, Susannah. Of course Susannah's excuse was less viable, she just simply stared. There was so much one could see and discover in the lovely few seconds of eye contact.

"Tell me something you find pleasure in that hardly anyone else knows about." Susannah's words are sudden, and they aren't really a question either. He watches a playful smile dance on her lips as her eyes light up. And damn if it didn't kill him, the quiet joy on her face. Even through the haze of darkness that blackened his mind, her smile fought through so precisely.

It takes him a second to answer. He knows what she is doing. Trying to focus his thoughts elsewhere. He wished he could say it wasn't working. "I collect second hand journals that once belonged to the most famous of scholars and the most ridiculed of them."

"Isn't it distracting? To see the notes littering the sides of the pages, to not, no matter how much you devote yourself be able to completely understand them."

Elijah responds simply," I can see their thoughts laid out before me. Thoughts are messy, and inconsistent, and sometimes they are gone before you even finish what you were originally thinking and your mind has already moved on. With these journals you can see that. You can see that thoughts are merely hypothetical inquires that keep us sane. It's intriguing."

Susannah smiled. "For a man so concerned with figuring me out, I had assumed you applied that aspect of yourself to everything."

"Some things simply are not meant to be understood."

"And for you, I am not one of them?"

He shifted his arm so he could brush her hair back. His fingers lingering along her jaw.

Cupping her cheek he takes a steadying breath-as if he he'd thought about every word these past three days, over and over again. "I spent centuries wandering the earth, from empires to kingdoms to wastelands, never settling, never stopping- not for one moment. I was always looking at the horizon, always wondering what waited across the next ocean, over the next mountain...and throughout those years of waiting and watching I never believed it was necessary for me to know anyone intimately. But as of now, with you, I feel if I don't then I will regret it for eternity."

His eyes locked on hers wide and wild and unfocused,"I am not easy to know Elijah. I fear you have painted me into a canvas I cannot claim to fit in."

"Whatever you had to do to survive, whatever you did from spite, rage, or selfishness...will not take away from what I see now."

"My reality isn't harmonious or sweet or beautiful." Susannah's voice almost sounded begging, as if she was willing him to see the things she had done without actually speaking of them.

"Maybe not, but you are."

Looking down she spoke quietly. "I grow more and more _thankful_ to you as every day passes."

Elijah could sense there was more she wanted to say but now was not the time. Not for her.

He watches Elena hurriedly move down the stairs, her eyes downcast. Susannah's gaze follows his.

"Inquire of her. See if she has kept her word."

"Come with me."

"She will not answer if I am present." Susannah countered.

"Then where will you go?"

"I do not always require company, Elijah." She said with a light laugh.

Examining her for a second more, soaking up her light, before leaving it.

"So how was my mother?" Elijah inquired quite simply. Watching Elena jump at the suddenness of his presence.

"Intense."Elena suddenly looks very pale and her eyes don't move from the place they stare.

"And for what reason did she need to speak with you in private."

She hails silent. The silence is charged with spiking energy, he watches as she stares at the staircase in which his mother stands. "Elena? Should I be worried about my mother's intentions?"

"She just wanted to apologize for trying to have me killed." Her heart jumps erratically in beat. Indicating a lie. Suddenly he is consumed by a sunken rage. Examining her face for a moment before realizing she lied the same way her past copies did.

"So it's true then? She's forgiven Niklaus?"

"It's true." The steady beat is broken once again.

His mother's voice howls over the sound of the balls. "Good Evening, Ladies and Gentlemen. Waiters are coming around with champagne. I invite you all to join me in raising a glass. It provides me with no greater joy than to see my family back together as one. I'd like to thank you all for being part of this spectacular evening. Cheers!"

Clinking his glass against Elena's he catches Susannah's gaze and raises the glass to his lips. Careful to not take a sip.


	10. Chapter 10

The second they had returned to their home a drink was in Elijah's hand.

It didn't taste like anything, but it went straight down into his stomach like a sharp deadly sword, that made him feel somewhat powerful. There was a mindlessness in his intoxication- there was the indescribable gloss and glamour it gave, like faded memories or even forgotten lifetimes.

His tie had been thrown off and his shirt unbuttoned showcasing the strength of his chest and body. His hair usually settled in a calm selected way, was in a messy arrangement due to him running his fingers through it frustratedly.

He didn't talk. He didn't want to talk. He just allowed the liquid to burn a heavy path down his throat, wishing it was blood instead.

"Elijah."

Her voice floated through the air, tightening his grip on the crystal galss in his hand he fought the need to face her.

Elijah could smell the sweet scent of the body wash she used to scrub the memories of the day off her skin. It was a sinful combination when paired with her natural scent. Although it was absolutely enticing he didn't want to see her, he didn't want her to see him.

"What do you need, Susannah." His voice was short and cutting. His features growing stony and hard as he swirled the liquid in his cup.

Crossing her arms over her chest she moves forward, all Elijah can hear is every step she takes closer to him. "I don't need you to give me anything, Elijah. I just need you to listen."

"No."

He was just beginning to feel the liquor take some kind of hold over him, it was a sweet release.

"Good thing I wasn't asking." Was her simple response. She sat next to him, and Elijah could feel the heat of her skin through the thin material of his shirt. He tried to ignore the way it unbalanced him so readily.

And suddenly he was furious. It was as if a flip that controlled all his emotions had been flipped and heatedly he slammed his fist into the table, vaguely aware of Susannah flinching away from him. All he could see was a red shade obscuring his vision.

The cup shattering in his hand, his own blood mixing in with the alcohol as it hit the floor, becoming millions of little crystals. Elijah Mikaelson was never one to lose control, but all he could see was his mother, staring down at him with false care...false love.

And that's when it hit him. The scent was even more enticing when not stuck beneath the layer of her skin. Guilt branded him as he watched her cradle her sliced palm to her breasts. She examined the wound with no perceivable emotions.

Grabbing her hand he stared at the pain he caused. He let her blood leak onto his skin, not bothering to wipe it off. Elijah, seeing the wound he caused on his angel, he could understand why his mother labeled him a monster.

"I apologize-"

"Don't." Susannah stepped forward her eyes open and forgiving. "You're allowed to lose control."

He immediately drops her hand and turns away. She is quickly becoming very familiar with Elijah's back, the deep shadows cast by his shoulder blades and the long straight groove of his spine.

"My loss of control just caused another pain. Just caused you pain, and yet you still wish to bring that part of me forward." His eyes are stuck on the blood staining his hands. Rubbing his fingers together, feeling the consistency of the liquid.

But Susannah was unyielding, fearless of her own vulnerability. She placed her hand on his back, feeling his skin through his shirt.

Elijah chuckles, a dark bitter laugh that made Susannah's mouth run dry. She could feel the vibrations of his body through her hand. "I am a monster who knows that I am a monster. I steal human and take human life for my own petty enjoyment-"

Her face changes, becoming quiet and thoughtful. "You all have this concept of humanity as this...pure, inviolate thing. Like that race exists in a big bubble and the rest of us remain out in the dark." She snorts and shakes her head. "Like they are the right ones. The normal ones. The righteous rulers of the earth."

There's a harsh edge to her voice that sounds like rocks grating together. There's a fire now, a deep anger that is so, so old. "Humans have fought just as you have, they have killed just as you have, and it's okay because everyone wants to live. But they don't get to be right. No one gets to be _right_."

Elijah doesn't say anything for a long time. Slowly he turns to face her. His eyes are carefully blank, moving forward with a calculated precision. He stops when he's so close Susannah can feel his breath on her cheek.

"Look at me," Elijah says forcing her chin up so her eyes meet his.

Slowly his face transforms.

Susannah watches as sharp incisors fall from his gums, and dark veins spread across his face. His eyes red mixed in with blackness.

Lifting her hand she gently touches his face. His eyes so focused on hers. So different from the brown she is used to seeing.

Her thumb glides over his bottom lip, as she stares at the fangs in his mouth. So sharp and deadly. He grabs her hand as it moves right beneath his eye, pulling them away from his skin. Elijah stares at her with a different kind of intensity. One that warms her.

"Now tell me what you think." his voice is solid, and filled with something so dark and heavy.

"It's-interesting."

Elijah shook his head, some of his dark hair falling over his forehead." Interesting is not a word."

"Since when?"

"It is a placeholder. Something you say when you don't want to say something else." He leaned closer, his eyes so so dark.

Susannah smiled. "I accept you as you are Elijah. If you are looking for disgust-you certainly won't find it with me."

There it was. Everything he needed to hear right there from the voice of angel. Each word was suddenly sacred and valuable only because she said it to him with truth in her heart. That's when he knew he cared. More than cared. He kisses her cheek. Enjoying the feel of her hot flesh beneath his lips. Savoring the air they share for a second before pulling away.

"You are still so angry." Susannah says in a whispery tone, her eyes softened and light.

"Anger is something I have grown accustomed to." The anger in him was wild thing, something he had always tried to control and never actually tried to release. Glimpsing at Susannah he watched the yawn fall from her mouth as she huddled back into herself.

And just like that he didn't feel angry anymore.

All he wanted to do was take her into his arms and rub her shoulders and tell her how beautiful she was as he took care of her.

"Revenge is such a funny thing," Susannah whispers directly into his ear. The natural power in her voice attracting him. "You go your whole life with this pain. This pain that you carry around in your mind." She brushes her hand over his forehead soothingly," In your chest," She whispers as she lowers her hand to the area above his heart."And in your stomach," she rubs her soft hand over his hardened abdomen. "And all you can think- that if you could just give it back to the person who gave it to you. If I can just find them I can force it into their hands and make them take it back and i'll be rid of it. But pain isn't an object. You can't give it back. It's a disease."

Susannah fiddles her hands together nervously. Biting on her lower lip,"Please Elijah, don't lose yourself into that disease."

He smiles.

"You're tired," Elijah says simply. Taking hold of her hand he can see it is already healed, and the only proof he had that it even happened was the red stain on his hand.

"So are you."

Susannah looks away as if gathering nerve, before opening her mouth once again. "Sleep with me."

Elijah raises an eyebrow, and Susannah flushes. "Not like that. I just wish to be close to you for a while longer."

The ancient vampire couldn't help but wonder how someone so wise could be so damn adorable. "Okay."

Placing his hand on her lower back careful to step over the shattered crystals of glass and blood he leads her to his room.

Susannah pulls away from him, crawling onto the bed before settling somewhere on the left side. Elijah stands over her for a second, enjoying the view of her.

"You're so beautiful."

Susannah laughs her body racking with small giggles. "You always say that."

"It's always true."

Elijah turns away and goes into his closet only to come back out shirtless with pajama pants laying low on his hips. Susannah sits up as he gets closer to the bed, her eyes focused on the markings on his chest and part of his arm.

The tattoo was a decoration on Elijah's body. One Susannah had a hard time removing her eyes from. It swirled over the lines of his body with such precision and power commanding the attention with it's black ink. Her hand raised, tracing the lines of a language commonly unknown. Elijah's eyes remaining level with hers as she touched him. His skin rising in heat.

" _Strength_." Susannah whispered the word written on Elijah's body.

"I was expected to live by my strength. That's why when I reached the age of eighteen my father branded it into my skin."

A low gasp left her mouth as she met his eyes. "The pain must have been-"

"It doesn't matter now." Elijah said holding her hand.

Meeting his dark eyes she grinned brightly. "Somewhere over the years I had it touched up. It helps me remember."

Getting onto the bed he placed his hands on her hips. When they lay down their bodies almost immediately intertwine with one another. So close nothing could possibly get in between them.

* * *

 **So I realize Elijah doesn't actually have a tattoo like that but I think tattoo's are pretty hot so there. I hope you liked it, I know it's short but I wanted to add some Elijah love in there. Review! let me know how I'm doing.**


	11. Chapter 11

Sitting up in the bed, alone and cold, Susannah feared the night before had been nothing but a wayward dream. That Elijah had never held her the way she could faintly remember, that the ghost touch that lined her skin was nothing more than pure imagination.

It was a cruel thought.

Running her hand over the spot Elijah had rested in, she could remember the pressure of his hand on her stomach as he held her close. Their fingers had been intertwined in such a simple and sweet way, yet holding hands in bed was an incredibly intimate thing to do. Burying her face back into the pillow she could smell him as if he was still right besides her.

Yawning she stood on wobbly feet, taking a mere two steps forward when she she saw the single white rose in a crystal glass vase on Elijah's window seal. One that had been absent the night before.

Her fingers soothed over one of the fine petals of the rose before she leaned down and inhaled the whimsical scent it blew. The rose was far from perfect, one of the petals had wilted some at the end and the thorns that covered its stem were set in an uneven pattern. But it still warmed her heart.

And for a split second Susannah could imagine a sea of warriors raining from heaven to smite her for feeling this way.

Susannah was a traitor and Elijah was her treason.

* * *

Elijah stared out the window, watching nature move as it always did. He stood there a moment listening to the creek that ran just outside. The steps that echoed behind him broke the sound of water lapping against the grass.

Turning he couldn't help but see the wings, as black as night, first.

"My sister has never understood love the way you have." Arael was quiet when he spoke, and he moved about with a certain otherworldliness that threw the world into a limbo of the unknown.

He was a child. But then again, he wasn't.

"And she will not understand it by any hand of mind." There was a coolness in his voice, one Elijah knew he must continue to latch onto. This attachment he was beginning to develop for Susannah was falling into a dangerous territory, one he wasn't supposed to enter again.

Arael chuckled lightly. As if Elijah was only a fool to think so.

"You will fail at that task," Arael said simply. He sat down at the table, tapping his fingers against the side of the chair he sat in. "Casting yourself aside in advance to save yourself some hurt will not work with Susannah."

A quizzical look took form on Elijah's face as he stared at the child, unable to admit the most obvious of emotions.

"What makes you so certain that I feel anything for her?" The inquiry was spoken in a mild and albeit aloof tone but Elijah couldn't disguise the tenseness of his body as the thought of having Susannah captured his mind.

"It's almost impossible not to." Arael inhaled roughly," You see Susannah is one of father's favored creations. I have seen her existence. I saw the ripples she makes- how much she affects the world just by being. Would you believe that the things she does in her lifetime will, at some point, affect every person on this planet at least once?That is...extraordinary. She is the walking theory of a butterfly creating a hurricane just by batting its wings halfway across the world. No being has ever done that before- none will ever do it again. One day, she will die and not many will know her name, but everyone will have been affected by her."

Elijah stood still, mouth hanging open, a heavyweight in his chest. That wasn't the kind of answer Elijah expected out of Arael, but then again, what had he been expecting? The answer was nothing, he'd gone in blindfolded, and now he'd come out blind.

"Now I have upset you." Arael said his brow furrowing in concern.

"No." Elijah said breathing out a laugh. _How could an abomination deserve the one who holds a piece of the world in her hands?_

"Arael," Susannah greeted as she entered the room, she immediately bent at her middle to place a kiss on Arael's forehead, one Arael quickly wiped away with a rouge blush. She wasn't doing anything more remarkable than standing there, and yet Elijah couldn't stop staring.

The rose Elijah had gotten for her was in her hands, and if possible the rose looked so much better there than anywhere else.

"Elijah," She greeted with a slight nod, her warm expressive eyes focusing on him. Her hair was messy and perfect as it fell down her body framing her face. The spaghetti strapped shirt she wore didn't touch the top of her shorts by mere centimeters, but that slither of skin was enough to intoxicate Elijah much more than a sea of whiskey ever could.

Coughing, Elijah spoke in a modulated tone, careful not to let anything he was feeling slip through the cracks of his words. "Susannah, my siblings have requested my presence in terms of dealing with our moth- Esther."

The strap of her shirt fell down beneath her shoulder when she shifted, frowning she ran her fingers over the petal of the rose nervously. "Has anything happened?"

That scent, that lovely, lovely scent. It was all around him now, mingled with the euphoric memory of the feel of her body against his. She was warm, soft, and pliant. He winced slightly, he simply wasn't used to caring this much. It seemed all the years of burying and destroying these kind of feelings meant nothing to a second in Susannah's presence.

"It's more a matter of precaution. You see, _Esther,_ is unaware that the spell she attempted to bind her children is under no effect. We must act quickly while we have the upper hand." Elijah's voice twisted on the name of his mother. The betrayal still burning a hole deep inside his chest.

Watching Susannah look at Arael, it brought forth a new, raw kind of jealousy. There's something magical about Susannah in her interactions with Arael. They have the kind of bond a civilization could be forged on, the obvious contentment they held in each others presence was enough to make any on looker burn with envy. They were simply, a pure, and loving family. Not perfect, but beautiful nonetheless.

"They will be here shortly," Elijah said his eyes drifting back towards the window.

Arael picked up a green apple, and rinsed it before turning on his heel and prancing away while tossing the apple up and down. His wings flapped back and forth as he moved further and further away from the kitchen, a small smirk etched on his face.

"Can you explain it to me?" Susannah murmured as she glanced over at Elijah.

"Explain what?" Elijah inquired making sure to keep some distance between him and her.

"Why I can't get too close." She dragged her bottom lip through her teeth and dropped her eyes to his collarbone.

Elijah could practically taste her essence on his tongue, was she trying to tempt him? To destroy his resolve?

"Nothing is stopping you." Elijah's main flaw was his ability to internalize, if he was full of rage, or grief, or consumed and betrayed- he was a marble statue, stunning and unyielding. He spoke with what sounded like practiced detachment. As if this wasn't about himself but about some random person.

"Every step I take forward you take two back." Susannah pointed out as she took another step, Elijah had to force himself to remain still.

Something hummed dissonant beneath his skin, something nameless and enervating. It was a hard question, there were so many things to say and yet he couldn't think of much except the truth and one single lie.

"Your an angel," He said finally.

"Can you not accept me the way I have you?" Her brow is furrowed. Her eyes widened with not pain but offense. As if she expected more out of Elijah.

There it was. Susannah has laid out a way for Elijah to detach himself from her by that single question. He could say that he could never accept her, but that would be a lie, for he already had. Or he could say the truth that rested under his tongue.

He stays silent for a moment, deliberating. Elijah knew what the beginnings of true affection felt like. He has loved many times and he knew falling again would cost him another piece of himself. Another piece he wasn't ready to give.

Susannah finding an answer in his silence averted her eyes. The pain in her chest was different than the one her family had caused. It affected a different part of her heart, she couldn't understand why she felt anything at all.

"I suppose it makes sense," She whispered. Elijah looks up at her feeling like a mere fool. The sadness that glazed her eyes mixed in with confusion acting as a barrier. "You went out of your way to aid me and Arael. You do not owe it to me to entertain me, you owe me nothing. It is I who owe you."

A certain kind of dread tickled his heart, as if he had lost something vital.

Susannah twisted a book in her hands catching Elijah's attention. "This may be a thing you neither want or need, but I want you to have it."

She placed it besides Elijah, careful not to touch him.

"What is it?" Feeling very sick he stared at Susannah, wishing she would meet his eyes.

"Consider it a gift, from me to you." She turned on her heel, walking away with her shoulders lowered. Leaving the rose Elijah had given her on the table.

* * *

Klaus stood by the fireplace his eyes watching the fire wood as if wishing there was a flame. His body was tense, but that wasn't unusual in terms of Klaus. His silence however was.

"Mother wouldn't do this," Rebekah cried desperately, her blonde hair flinging over her shoulder as she stomped towards the door. Klaus had simply told her, the night before that the toast had been poisoned. He hadn't mentioned their mother's hand in it.

"Wouldn't she?" Klaus taunted darkly. "Wouldn't she do anything to destroy the bastard child she conceived?"

"If so why is Finn not with us?" Rebekah shot back harshly. Her eyes jumping back and forth between the faces of her siblings, searching for a better answer. An answer that fit the picture she had created in her mind.

"You continue to stand by you delusions of our family. Finn was just as much apart of it as are mother was."

"What makes you so certain?" Rebekah finally sneered.

Klaus smirked leveling his eyes with Elijah's. "Lets just say I had an angel whisper it in my ear."

Rebekah frowned, the answer vague and indecipherable to her only added more to her growing frustration.

Elijah's whole body language changed in that moment as he focused his eyes. Klaus knew, and Susannah had been the one to tell him. Lifting his chin he forced himself to exclude the facade of complete and utter control.

"Speaking of angels, where is the lovely Susannah?"

Elijah's eyes fell to the book that sat on by the window. The gift he didn't deserve, Elijah hadn't as so much touched the book, if he had, he would have felt even more worthless.

Kol smirked," It's almost as if Nik could read my mind. Where is she Elijah?"

Rebekah kicked her heel at the floor," What does it matter?" Her blue eyes darted from sibling to sibling once more. Her anger growing and growing. She was the only one who even seemed to feel anything at their mother's deceit. While her brother's pondered upon some slut Elijah had picked up from nowhere.

"My presence was requested?" Her sweet voice was heard before she was seen. As she rounded the hall, her long hair glossy with health and volume bounced as she moved towards the siblings. And she took his breath away, like the dozen of his past loves had. The difference was, Susannah also reminded him to keep it.

Wringing her fingers together she smiled. She smiled so lightly, so prettily.

"Would you mind sharing with the class exactly what my degenerate mother had planned for her darling children." Klaus's voice broke through Elijah's trance as he shattered the image by the way his eyes seemed to trail after Susannah.

Susannah met Elijah's gaze, only for a split second before looking away. "It would be my pleasure."


	12. Chapter 12

The woman's face was grimly drawn into an ugly expression, forged from fear and suffering. There was an unnerving ease of which the blade slid across her thin pale neck, her blood spilling messily into the bowl that hovered in front of her body. The grip Esther held in her hair loosened as the bowl filled, seeing her reflection in the thick red pool she caught the sly smile that teased her lips.

She was so close.

Dropping the girl's body as if she had not been the one to commit such violence, she placed the blade besides her grimoire, careful to not let unworthy blood stain the handcrafted pages.

Dipping her pointer finger into the bowl she swirled the liquid chanting a low dark song not meant to be said, one that called for the malevolent spirits of witches. Ones that were prepared to rid the world of the abominations she had created long ago.

"Sisters hear me now."

The soft susurration of the leaves soon became a fierce rustling, loud enough to drown out the chorus of the birds. Brushing the fallen leaves from her long hair as the winds rocked her backwards. A brilliant shock of white in the graphite sky, it was not a bolt, streaking to the earth in the way nature had created it, but more of an almighty camera flash that blanketed everything at once.

Esther had been in the darkness for so long that when the candles lit it was almost too much to see. The flames flickered in the vulnerable way fire does, the nascent flame being pushed by the spirit's voice.

"The wine had not been touched, the ritual must be left uncompleted," A hostile growl shook the earth as the trees danced from the force of the winds. "Aid me now, sisters. Give me the power I need to end this."

The winds grew in strength as her grimoire was thrown to the side, the candles becoming pillars of heat and light that stood tall and imposing on the force of the earth.

"Their kind has not walked the earth for some time."The voice was a whispery husk, followed by multiple undecipherable sounds.

"Who?" Esther screamed into the darkness, begging to be answered, To be given the reward of purging her children of life.

"They are sentient beings that lie close with the abominations of your creation."

Shoved to the ground she felt their power rumble the earth. "What does that mean?" Tears stained her cheeks at the amount of dark tainted magic rubbing against her skin, digging into her soul and corrupting everything it touched.

Their voices joined together, sounding like an earthquake of sounds at a stadium.

"An ancient power."

"They cannot be killed by our hand."

"So much power."

"Divine."

"Celestial."

"Angel."

Esther dug her fingers into her hair, covering her ears as she laid against the ground. Her head pounding as she desperately tried to hear and understand what they spoke of.

"How?" Esther cried weakly.

"Promise yourself to us." They thundered, the sky lighting up and the world spinning around her.

"I...I...I promise." Her voice was but a little whisper.

And then everything was still. Nothing moved, the candles blown away into the night.

A scream fought its way through her mouth as they entered. More and more, power she had never touched, never felt at her fingertips. Dancing beneath her skin. Yet she felt the more that entered the more she was submerged beneath their will.

Becoming nothing more than another voice.

* * *

Susannah's story had stopped the second they had been unleashed upon the earth.

She could feel the irritation of the Mikaelson siblings at her sudden pause, but couldn't find it within herself to care. Not when this much earthly magic was meeting at one destination, forming and regrouping.

It wasn't pure earthly magic.

It wasn't the kind that was sacred and limited.

It was dark.

Tainted with brutality and death.

Susannah stared at the sky, watching the sudden storm brewing. The window shaking in its place by the strength of the winds. Elijah watched as her teeth dug into her bottom lip and as she clenched and unclenched her hand. Cursing himself mentally at the need to be by her side, he wasn't sure if he loved or hated how attuned he was to his angel.

It was as if Elijah could feel her sudden change, a change that left him with no choice but to get up and make sure Susannah was fine.

"Susannah," Elijah whispered as if to not frighten her, he moved to stand behind her gripping her hand and forcing her to face him. His calloused hands took hold of her face, his thumbs rubbing small circles as he stared at her deeply, worriedly.

"Are you okay?" There was undeniably more to his question then what he was saying. Elijah wanted to know if she was in danger, if she was hurt, if she was in any pain. If there was anything he could do to ease it.

Susannah dug her heels into the ground, briefly meeting Elijah's eyes before glancing upwards, her mouth pursed but slightly loose and open. She was unaccustomed to the behaviors of Elijah Mikaelson. His words and actions are simply divergent. As in they pull in opposite directions, as if his brain's narrator and navigator have entirely different ideas about the world.

 _Why would he contradict himself by touching her so tenderly when he couldn't even accept her for what she is? Why would he confuse her like this?_

Swallowing she quickly placed her hands on Elijah's chest, pushing him away. She doesn't want to be confused by the likes of him.

She vaguely catches the glimpse of apology written in his eyes.

Walking past him as if he had never spoken to her, Susannah addressed Klaus with wide eyes. "Esther knows."

Rebekah shook her head, crossing her arms over he chest as she narrowed her eyes. "How could you possibly know that?"

Klaus growled, his eyes becoming dangerous stones that shone a golden hazel. The wolf inside of him prowling just beneath the exterior of his skin. A deep insatiable hunger for bloodshed corrupting his every move.

He knew the truth of her words.

Something inside of Susannah motivated her to lay her hand over Klaus's chest. Feeling the heaviness of his breath against her palm she looked up at him with gentle eyes. Her exotic and blissful scent oozed into the air around him. Growling he gripped her wrist dragging her body closer as he leaned down into the crook of her neck, inhaling greedily. His fangs lengthened as they scraped against the skin of her neck, so close yet so far.

The sudden lust for blood within his anger was not uncommon, his need to hold onto restraint while holding onto her was.

Elijah moved without even being aware, his body flying forward, reaching for his brother with the intent to stick his hand through his chest. The raw possessiveness that coursed through his veins like poison as he watched his brother clutch onto his angel.

Kol intervened, slamming Elijah ruthlessly into the wall. The firm pressure of Kol's hands ensured he would not move away.

"Find control Niklaus." Susannah whispered softly into his ear. Her breath tickling a path down the length of his neck.

Elijah watched on helplessly, his eyes hardening by every passing second. Betrayal sunk its way into his stomach, it felt as if she were being taken.

"Remember I am indebted to you." She continued lightly," I can help you finish this."

Her words caught Elijah. _Indebted_. As if she owed his brother some great amount. It made him sick, he flexed his fingers and fought the urge to slam Kol's head into the ground to calm this raging anger.

Susannah belonged to Elijah. There was no way he could prove that claim only to say that he had unintentionally bound himself to her.

"Listen to me. She is gathering power." Susannah angled her head backwards, so she could get a better look into the unstable eyes of Klaus Mikaelson. "You will not be able to get close to her with that much power riding inside of her. Do you understand me?"

Klaus stared into her eyes, trying to decipher her, ignoring the harsh breaths of Elijah from somewhere close in the room.

"There is a difference between natural and divine magic. Natural magic is diluted, it's not as strong, its for all intents and purposes, weaker and easier to access. Divine magic is pure magic. It is the true creator of magic itself. My blood supplies one of the most susceptible forms of divine magic-"

"He will not drink from you," Elijah hissed menacingly, as he ordered her abruptly. His eyes were rigid, narrowed, cold, and hard. His customary warmth gone and replaced with ice. His lethal stare felt painful and piercing, as if he wasn't really seeing her. Just seeing what he could potentially lose.

He could just imagine Niklaus holding Susannah as he drank from her. Tasting her, taking her for his own when she rightfully belonged next to Elijah.

"This isn't about you Elijah." Susannah all but snapped, her eyes becoming daggers that landed on Elijah. Her tongue rolling over the syllables of his name with a certain kind of disdain. "It seems I have grown lenient in reminding you that you do not own me."

Rebekah dug her hands into the sides of her hips, watching as her brothers fought to get closer to the...witch?

"What are you?" Rebekah forced out darkly, staring at Susannah intensely. Needing to know, to understand whatever this was.

"Be silent Rebekah," Klaus grounded out. His eyes still focused simply on Susannah."If I intake your blood what will happen?"

" **Brother** ," Elijah yelled. Dragging his eyes to his eldest brother, the brother he had never seen so...out of control...so him. "Have you lost the capacity to hear? Release her- she is not yours."

"What right do you have to dictate this, Elijah?" Susannah suddenly said weakly with wet eyes. "You talk of being a valiant protector of me and all that I am, yet your actions torment me until I'm thrown back into your words. Actions that slip more easily from you than leaves falling from trees. You wish to know me? For what reason Elijah, so you can deem if I am worthy as I am?"

Throwing Kol to the ground with darkened eyes he stared at Susannah, hearing her words drilled a hole inside of him.

"I know I have made a mistake, but you must understand this is not something I wanted-"

"As if you're the only one who deserves a choice in any of this." Timidly she ran her fingers through her hair. "Why do you have to be so selfish about this? Is it pride? Do you just not see your actions for what they are?"

"Susannah," Elijah forced his voice tense and so heavy. "I apologize for the way I have confused you, I know I have been unfair but please do not allow this...to allow a vampire to drink willingly from you is something so much deeper than it seems."

With watery eyes she took in a sharp breath and faced Klaus, purposely stepping closer to him." My blood will give you the energy you need to get past any barriers that Esther creates. You won't have long so I urge you to act quickly."

Klaus stares at Susannah for a long moment his eyes now a stunning blue. He knew his priorities lied with finishing Esther and not by the way Elijah felt. Sparring a quick glance over to see his brother standing straight. His eyes focused on Susannah, staring at her as if she held his whole world and could crush it by allowing Klaus to do this.

Leaning down he quickly fell forward and punctured her throat. He couldn't fight the animalistic moan at the erotic taste of her blood filling his mouth, despite knowing the pain it would cause Elijah. He found his hand threading through her dark hair as he anchored himself to her neck.

He sucked on her blood greedily, unable to deny the ancient power that coursed through him. He felt invincible.

With some unknown power of restraint he fell away from Susannah.

Placing her hand over her wound she forced a fake smile.

Rebekah coughed lightly in a useless attempt to lessen the tension. "We will get the doppelganger. Knowing our mother she would attempt to use her as bait."

"Susannah and I will go." Elijah said suddenly. His eyes were focused on the world outside of the room and his voice was muted and low.

"Elijah-"

"Shall we." He offered his arm to her not meeting her eyes.

Susannah blinked back any tears, ignoring the blood that stained her clothes. "Of course."


	13. Chapter 13

The warmth that had been in the winds had long faded and was replaced with icy daggers that ruthlessly tore at the skin, her arm which was limply intertwined with Elijah's as they walked slowly towards the dopplegangers humble abode, was lined with goosebumps from the frigid weather.

She couldn't help but wonder why he didn't just let her go.

With conscious effort Susannah tried to bid herself to speak, parting her lips slightly in a half hearted attempt, instead of any words coming forth she only released a soft breath that lingered in the cool air.

The slow pace of their step not reflecting the urgency that riddled their being.

"I have always seemed to play second fiddle to my brothers whims concerning those I deeply care for." Fatigue was engraved on his face, pain dancing in his eyes as if he was reliving old memories.

She could feel the quiver of his muscles, exhausted with a sheer hard strength still lingering within him.

A shuddering breath fell from her lips as she forced her eyes upwards, taking in the adequate amount of shimmering stars that illuminated the moonless night. She felt like a crystal figurine, pretty to the eyes, fragile underneath.

She knew she had done something fairly awful when she continually had to justify it, but she knew that she wasn't his to get hurt by. Stiffing herself militarily while clearing her throat, the blood felt so cold on her skin. And the worst part was, she knew it was taunting Elijah with a savage intensity.

Digging herself further into his touch, she felt his eyes lift to her.

The blood stained her clothing, and her hair was in a bundle of messy curls that fell down her back rocking back and forth with every step she took. A miracle she was, an exquisite paragon of beauty and virtue. The most stunning thing he'd ever seen fall from the sky.

Maybe she was a fallen star, because at this moment. With her body so close to his, Susannah couldn't have felt further away.

"I-" _I'm sorry._ Wrapping a hand around her throat as she attempted to croak out the words she needed to say so badly. Letting her hair make a curtain over her eyes.

"I have loved multiple times in the length of my life." Carefully spoken, without drama his words had an air of finality about them. His eyes turning to colorless pools as they met hers. "A part of me had been released from my control and given away to the woman of the time who held my heart, and it always ended with me not gaining anything in return except the scraps of my brother's involvement."

His fingers ached to get tangled into her hair and take back what his brother had stolen.

A pair of visual contradictions. With her short cotton shorts and top, she looked prepared to sleep while Elijah was dressed as respectfully as ever, her beauty complimenting his masculine features, together they seemed so powerful and unexpected, edgy and strong.

Licking her lips, his eyes following the movement of her tongue.

In the half light Elijah looked like a mere shadow, a shadow she ached to touch. "I don't see how that has any connection to me. You don't care about me."

Offense pooled into his body, as if the very idea was an insult to his integrity as a man. Refusing to yield to his offense, she pushed herself forward. She was sorry and at the same time she wasn't. She wasn't because his offense was nothing more than a whine.

"I certainly wish that was true," He confided in an articulate string of words. He paused, rubbing his temples before continuing," Being numb to you would be better than feeling anything at all."

Stopping in mid step, she ripped her arm away from Elijah, her teeth gritting together as a certain wild ferocity latched itself onto her spine. "All I have done is offer my hand to you in friendship and you have looked away and pretended not to notice." Sarcasm entered her voice as she flipped her hair over her shoulder, "I apologize that the second I met you I didn't tell you my whole life story-"

"Friendship?"He hurled the word as if it was an insult. "Is that what you think this is about? I am aware you are new to the inner workings of feelings as significant as these but you are no fool."

Shaking her head in utter disbelief, her expression growing grave. "What chance did I have to understand these feelings you speak of?" She had a strange feeling in the pit of her stomach, like when you're swimming and you want to put your feet down on something solid, but the water is deeper than you think and there's nothing there.

"You made me feel like-" Swallowing a breath and forcing herself to speak the words hiding beneath her tongue she continued, "like I could once again touch the sky."

"I like simple things, like reading, and clever conversation, and being left to my own devices. And I like you. I like you in a way I can't speak of because I don't know how to say it. But you're anything but simple. These _ineffable_ feelings that I have no means to describe make me question myself in a way I have never done before. And when I turned to you hoping you would be there to help me understand what it meant, you had already stepped away. So If that makes me a fool than I guess I have no other name."

The word ineffable echoed loudly in her mind. She had always liked _ineffable_ because it meant a feeling so big and vast that it could not be expressed by words. And yet, because it could not be expressed in words, people had invented a word to express it, and that made Susannah feel hopeful, somehow.

Elijah, being invaded by an unreasoning calm, his eyes moving over the dried blood on her neck. What words did he have that would muster the most sincere apology he could offer. He had assumed she understood the way he had, that Susannah knew that what he felt and what she had described was much more than friendship.

"We don't have time for this." The words came out gruff and were so far from what he truly wanted to say, but he couldn't seem to be able to say anything else.

Letting out a harsh laugh she felt bitterness soak inside of her. "I suppose we'll just wait until whenever you are ready, Elijah. That seems to be a familiar pattern concerning us."

He stared at Susannah as if she were the most frustrating being to currently walk the earth. Despite every instinct inside of him he ignored the raw feeling to challenge and argue with her. They had more important things to focus on, that is if he could focus on anything other than Susannah herself.

It was as if she was purposely playing a game with him. The charm of her form stole insensibly from him, his hands ached to feel and discover in a more sinful manner, but it wasn't just her beauty. It was everything behind it. A certain amount of mischief mixed in with the heated anger of the moment, as if she were laughing at him on the inside.

Alluringly she blinked, crossing her arms over her chest with irritation dancing in her movements. Her eyelashes fluttering like that of a butterfly's wing, her amazing eyes glaring at him crudely. They were just an unnamed color, but Elijah wished for a moment he could touch behind them and understand what was inside.

"What?" Susannah barked, suddenly severely annoyed with the way he was looking at her. As if she were important and valued. It didn't matter, she restlessly reminded herself, she would become the background soon enough. "I thought we didn't have time for this."

Sighing loudly he pushed forward, carelessly banging his fist onto the door.

He could hear the long drags of footsteps before the door was opened by a barely awakened Elena. Her hair was a messy updo, tied weakly and loosely. Her eyes wide as she took in Elijah's presence.

"Elijah," She muttered confusedly, her voice twinged with sleep, worriedly taking her eyes over the wound on Susannah's neck.

"Ms. Gilbert," Elijah drawled with a new kind of composure."It seems a fault of mine has been allowing myself to get sidetracked by woman of the same face as yours. Unfortunately for you I have since ceased those efforts."

"W- What do you mean?" Stepping out onto the wooden patio she glanced around nervously. Attempting to utilize her doe like eyes she widened them and swallowed down her anxiety.

"I do not appreciate being deceived, Elena."

"You don't appreciate much," Susannah whispered under her breath, biting the inside of her cheek.

Elena realizing her mistake turned to step back into the comfort and safety of her home, but Elijah's firm grip was already around her wrist within the second the thought entered her mind. Dragging her forward he wrapped one arm around her waist, using the other to hold Susannah close to him as he sped towards the caves.

It didn't take long to arrive to the caves, and Susannah had already pushed herself away from him before he could release her himself.

Elena shivering like a leaf, found a flat surface of a rock and planted herself on top of it. Her heart stuttering on forward harshly as the winds whipped her brown hair against her cheeks.

"Are you okay?" Elena asked weakly. Glancing at Elijah as if she expected him to jump and plunge his teeth into her neck at any time.

"I'm fine," Susannah said with the wave of her hand, her lips pointed downwards as she tossed a glance towards Elijah. "It was just a simple bite after all."

A bitter chuckle fell from his mouth. Drawing his arms closer to himself he shot Susannah a sharp look, one that had Elena tensing. "It can hardly be categorized as simple." Lifting a hand and threading it through his dark hair he leaned against the wall for support.

Scoffing Susannah rolled her eyes," It wouldn't have mattered if it had been you in his place."

And she was internally glad it wasn't Elijah. He would have made her crave it, want to be drained of power and blood. And then once he got his fill, he would go back to pretending she didn't exist.

"Your right." Elijah responded instantly. "However, taking into consideration my past observations of the woman who-"

"Don't compare me to them." Her voice was like a clipped blade slicing through the air and wind and Elijah would rather take a dagger to his heart than hear the coldness of her words again.

The distorted view of deep within the cave was becoming more clear the longer Susannah stared. The bleakness of it reminding her somewhat of how she felt of Elijah, The toxicity of her feelings only pushing forward her unworthiness.

"I don't know why you have loved every woman you have or in turn why she loved you, but I do know that I am myself and I do not like being compared to anyone. You can be angry for it being Niklaus instead of you, but don't you dare assume I did this other than to fulfill my debt." Her voice was verbal vanilla, light and airy, feathery and sweet. This voice had the power to make him feel as if he was the most powerful man on the earth and bring him to his knees the next second.

Elena shifted, feeling the strength of the ethereal woman with blood falling from her neck. She felt almost intruding as she watched them interact with the kind of passion only lovers in the most admired stories had.

Elijah eased himself away from the wall, moving with a elegance she had only seen from the shadows dancing upon the walls. "They are all barren in comparison, Susannah. There merely is no comparison at all."

Brushing a lock of her hair away from her face he eased his hand to the curve of her cheek, gently holding her as if she were some fine diamond he would completely throw himself into protecting. He wanted to tell her how sorry he was that he pulled her close with one hand and pushed her away with the other, but he couldn't stop as easily as Susannah demanded.

The problem lied with he had nothing to compare her to or the feelings that rose inside of him to. He had immediately categorized any feelings for any woman as familiar territory, understandable and navigable. But he was quickly discovering that these feelings directed towards Susannah, were completely and irrecoverably unique to her and none others.

With all the others there had always been some sort of limit. Some sort of restriction to what he felt. There was no way for him to temper his emotions down, most see the control rooted to Elijah's very being and don't understand it, or perhaps are skeptical and believe it to be a manipulation of some sorts. In reality it was protection. He couldn't control what he so desperately needed to control, so instead he gave mixed messages disguised as caring.

Pushing her body into the wall, he could feel the femininity of her body clutched against his. From the delicate arch of her foot to the power of her thigh to the large curve of her rounded bottom and upwards, Susannah was every man's perfect bait. That realization caused anticipatory fire to blaze through his veins.

Susannah's eyes met him as her cheeks flushed in approval. He had gained the approval of many woman in his time, but her approval would outrank anyone else's admiration. Shaking her head as if realizing her actions she pulled herself away.

Coughing she dug her fingers into her sides, "Have you contacted your siblings?"

Her voice was thicker than it had ever been as if she was barely holding on and hated it.

"This is more important." Perhaps it was because the strength of the situation had yet to touch him, but Elijah believed with the aid of Susannah's blood moving throughout Niklaus, that his brother could handle their mother single handedly.

"You're deluded if you think so." He wasn't surprised to see her eyes darken at the implications of his words. He was, however taken aback when she stalked towards him, all sparks and fire and magnificence.

"Well my children all seem to make that mistake when it comes to those they fancy themselves in love with."

That voice caused the world to freeze for a second.

Walking with blood staining the tips of her hair and her hands she smirked as of this was nothing but a crude little game.

"Thank you Elena for being my way of tracking them here." Holding up a small vival with two drops of blood in it, Susannah had no doubt belonged to the doppelganger.

Rubbing her arms as if to fight off the chill, Elena cringed away, feeling even more small in a game not meant for her to participate in.

Narrowing her eyes Susannah turned on her heel, facing Esther. Except it wasn't really Esther anymore. It was an empty container, filled with multiple little disposable beings.

Elijah's stomach tightened as he fought the urge to place Susannah behind him, he knew she would not appreciate an action like that.

"Elijah," Esther whispered his name with a solemn joy. As if she could just imagine holding him as a newborn and whispering his name with such happiness only to watch that image fade into bloodshed. "Do you understand why I am doing this?"

Steeling himself he tilted his head," Is it because you enjoy the idea of the abominations you created becoming nothing but a fallen memory? Or is it because you can still not face the reality of your deceit when conceiving Niklaus, so once again as history repeats, you put your own failures onto your children."

Sinckering darkly she runs her stained fingers through her blonde hair, "Oh my lovely son, my moral son. How wrong you are. You see for centuries, as your siblings and you destroyed mercilessly I felt the pain of every death you all caused. I felt the torture you did, as if it was being carved into my own skin instead of any victim of yours. I watched you try and fail at playing the role of an ethical man, a man when you are only but a monster."

His mother's words were like lashes onto his back. He could faintly remember a time when she would have held his hand instead of burn it.

"And you are not Esther anymore. You are merely an exaggeration of her experiences. You are nothing but a shell being controlled by those no longer meant to be on this earth. You spirits do not belong in this realm of existence." Susannah placed a hand on Elijah's arm. Rubbing a small circle into his muscle. A comforting touch that sent a series of warm spirals through him.

Esther's eyes blackened as she examined Susannah. "The fallen angel standing by the abomination. What would your siblings think of such- corruption?"

Raising a perfectly arched eyebrow, Susannah tossed Esther a dirty look. "You witches have always forced yourself into believing you are as natural as the humans that roam this earth. That you are one in the same."

Power swarmed beneath her begging to fully be released. The last time she had accessed the full strength of herself it had been severely weakened by the force of her fall, now it was pure and redeveloped. A power that Esther would not be able to touch.

Elijah watched as the cave rumbled and fear trickled into the empty eyes of his mother. Sparing a glance at Susannah to see a delightful gold glow radiating off her skin, creating a light that was hers only.

Hearing a low gasp, he watched the doppelganger pull into herself, eyes wide with excitement and fear.

The only thing missing was her wings.

"Elijah," Susannah called, her voice far away," Call Niklaus. He needs to be here."

"Yes," Elijah muttered digging into his pocket," Susannah." Saying her name reverently as if she was a prayer.

To destroy Esther, Susannah needed to touch her while she wiped every spirit inside of her from existence. That would take time, time in which Esther would have to remain still and unmoving.

Elijah wouldn't be able to get close enough to hold Esther, that left only Niklaus.

"Mother," A dark voice drawled, sounding more wolf than man.

Internally cheering she nodded towards Klaus, as he came behind his mother and held her in a bruising grip. His nails digging into her shoulders drawing blood forward.

Placing her hand on Esther's forehead she burned through the hundreds of dead witches burning them out from life. Leaving only a powerless Esther.

" ** _No_**." Pulling her hands up to her sight, Esther couldn't feel any magic inside of her. They had taken, the spirits that is, they had taken for their own and it was destroyed along with them.

Fighting to break her son's grip she screamed a bloodthirsty sound, gasping only when Niklaus stuck his hand through her back and ripped out her heart.

* * *

 _Ding dong the witch is dead!_

 _I have to thank some of my reviewers because ya'll are absolutely amazing._

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 _You guys honestly encourage me to update faster and write more so I sincerely thank you guys for that._


	14. Chapter 14

Frustration bled through the ink of his pen as it stained the paper before him. Crumpled letters laid spewed across the floor of his study. All his life Elijah had written letters, to old long dead friends, to his family, and even to himself.

But the fluidity and effortless candor that usual acquitted him was lost when he simply wrote her name.

Who knew paper and ink could be so vicious.

There was so much he needed to say, so many words he didn't even know how to use in addressing her.

The little details that usually meant nothing taunted him, should he begin with _Dear Susannah,_ or something less classical and more bold, _My Darling Susannah,_ perhaps even an opening of _My Angel._ Would Susannah appreciate an ending as simple as _sincerely,_ or would his traditional ending of _Always and Forever_ reign superior.

Inhaling a deep breath, glancing at the plethora of white roses he plucked from the garden that now sat at his desk in a crystal vase. The ones he had gifted to Susannah after their affectionate night of rest together.

The roses that were returned and no longer wanted.

 _Susannah_ ,

 _If I could give you one last thing before I leave it shall be the truth._

 _You, Susannah, are the caretaker of my utmost affections._

 _Both my words and my conduct in our last correspondence were completely ungentlemanly- born of haste and high emotion, rather than friendship and high judgement._

 _I became a man ordered by want, and in that driven haze I hurt you._

 _As a selfish and self indulgent man, I cannot help but hold onto to what you bring to me. My blood- even as I write this-my blood, my muscle, and every fibre of my being, is listening for you. Listening for your heartbeat in my ever still but never silent room._

 _Even when we argue with heated words on the edges of are sharp tongues, I was still in your presence._ _Even when you have stolen from me so effortlessly, so gracefully. Even when you are the knife I would willingly turn into myself._

 _I can't help but imagine you reading this as I write. Your generously curved mouth lined straight as your face drained with an expressionless mask. Your eyes however, would say it all. Narrowed, rigid, cold, and hard- reflecting everything and seeing nothing._

 _There is much I want to say with no direction on as to how. This letter may simply be useless ramblings placed together in an attempt to show what I truly feel. It may, in the end mean nothing to you._

 _To truly give you not an excuse, but an explanation for my behavior in denying you the truth of my fondness, I must start from the time before I became the man I am today._

 _Love was something I placed on a pedestal, however pedestals are never safe. One wrong move and a far fall is sure to follow._ _I could give you the names of all I loved, but that wouldn't provide the clarity you so desperately seek. All I could offer is in that long list of names there has not been one to stay._

 _Needless to say, I no longer believe in the longevity of love as an endless, everlasting thing. It is only there for a moment and gone as quickly as it had come._

 _To speak of love was never meant to be the main topic of this letter, but I suppose some things can't help but fall back into it._

 _Any way is better than no way in reaching what I need to say._

 _This will be my quiet farewell._

 _I not only manipulated an innocent in order to draw out my mother in her wicked schemes, I involved you in something that you, my angel, had no place in joining._

 _I could hold you prisoner to this letter and list all the reasons I am doing this, but that would only be half the answer._

 _You have my deepest apologies and most sincerest regrets for the way I cannot do this face-to-face. But I do know how to write._

 _And I know, in a way, you will feel betrayed by my absence._

 _All I can say is you have my deepest apologies._

 _-Sincerely Elijah_

He smiled faintly.

Standing from his desk, the items he needed already packed and ready to go, he left to the room Susannah rested in and placed the letter on the desk besides her bed. Her long hair spread out messily over the sheets, her lips parted as she sucked in breath after breath.

Her form fitting nightgown a pristine white, pooling around her body like liquid silk.

Using his knuckles to move a thick bundle of hair away from her face he leaned down and placed a kiss upon her forehead.

That was his final goodbye as he gathered his items and left, careful to not make a sound.

* * *

"What's your poison?"

The question was a dull repeat as the bartender cradled her head in her hands, leaning on her elbows as stared at Elijah with curious eyes. It had been hours since he left Mystic Falls, and he knew Susannah had already awakened to his letter. That was perhaps some form of torture to his already troubled mind.

Swiftly adjusting his cufflinks he spoke in a low voice,"Bourbon I suppose."

The drink had been one of the most popular ones in Mystic Falls, one he had no true feelings for or attachments. But he concluded that anything that linked to Mystic Falls, in a roundabout way, linked to Susannah as well.

The bartender offered a sad, small smile. Even if he didn't show pain, men like him only came around to escape such things. Pushing herself up she nodded and made her way to the back.

"If it isn't the noblest of the original family." Her voice purred from just behind him, thicker with forced seduction and false charm.

He didn't turn to face her, Katerina would have wanted that.

Instead he felt her slide into the chair besides him, her scent layered with perfume that made his nostrils burn with how sweet it was.

"How odd." She whispered as if she were playing a secret game.

Casting a sharp glance her way, to see the same face that tortured him for centuries. She was clad in an outfit obscenely inappropriate but garnered the attention she seemed to be seeking.

The smile that was on her face immediately fell when she met his eyes.

"Who is she?" Her voice was higher pitched than normal, catching with some emotion, jealousy perhaps. Elijah almost laughed at the notion.

He remained silent, as the bartender sat down his drink in front of him. Picking it up he took a long drag of the liquid, almost sighing at the lovely burn in the back of his throat. That burn accompanied with the sight of the bottom of the glass reminded him of the night he had lost control.

"I know there is someone."Katerina sounded so sure as she flipped her dark hair, her arms crossing.

Elijah cracked a smile,"What right do you have to know of any aspect of my life, Katerina? Or is it Katherine now?"

He watched her flinch at his cool tone, her hand immediately clenching around the side of the bar table. "You don't look at me the same." Her voice was quiet even though her words were bold ones to utter. She sounded sad in a misguided kind of way.

Katerina inhaled in deeply,"I should have known this would happen soon enough."

"Why do you say that?" Elijah said tapping his fingers against the wooden bar.

"You call me Katerina but you see me as Katherine." Licking her lips she continued in a dull voice," Katherine is nothing like your darling Tatia. There is hardly anything you can use to compare me to her any longer...so you don't.

Elijah opened his mouth to speak but Katerina raised her hand, holding him off.

"You pursued me because of my resemblance to Tatia, now that hardly matters because of this girl you refuse to speak of."

"I pursued you because I thought you were fascinating." There was no lie to his words as he finished he drink, waving his hand to alert the bartender. This time when she returned she left the bottle.

"I may have been infatuated with you but I was not blind Elijah. You were fascinated with my resemblance yes, but never with me."Taking a swig of Elijah's bottle, Katherine shook her head. "Now both of those things mean nothing."

There is silence.

A silence that is jittery and nothing like the silence he has with Susannah.

"Who is she?"

The question is one Elijah knows he can't answer. Who is she? Susannah. A name is not enough, just a simple title.

"It no longer matters." Elijah says simply, but his words are decorated with steel, warning Katerina to turn back. Almost more of a warning then his hand gripping her heart.

"Has she died?" Why couldn't she stop pushing? What was this obsessive need to know. To know who has removed her so easily from Elijah's heart and mind. Who branded her nothing more than a fleeting memory.

Elijah chuckles at that. An image of Susannah smiling and laughing, her hair falling over her eyes before she settles it back behind her ear once again. It's the best smile he's ever seen. The dimples that indent her cheeks, adorable.

He couldn't imagine her faded from existence. His fallen star wouldn't burn out. Running his hand over his chest where the edges of his tattoo lay he continued in his path of silence.

"You have left her." Katerina concluded, licking her lips she smirked. "What a cowardly-"

Her sentence was broken when Elijah's hand crushed her throat. The same hand that once reached to her in desire wanted to currently rip her apart. There was no gentleness in his touch, there was only the coldness in which Elijah regarded all enemies.

Wheezing out a terrible sound she dug her nails into his hand, trying to pull him away. Her eyes growing desperate and wide.

Releasing her roughly, he watched her collapse to the floor. The dirty and stained floor.

Katerina, a movement born out of desperation, stands and swiftly kisses the original. The kiss is cold and clammy, as she claws at him, begging him to respond. But Elijah remains unyielding. The kiss is nothing.

And when Katerina pulls away with tears in his eyes, he can't find it within himself to truly care.


	15. Chapter 15

No tears fell from her eyes, but for a second, she could admit- her breath did catch.

Placing the letter back where she found it, carefully folded, trying to breathe through the dull anger that circled her stomach- positively livid from the flowery language mixed in with calloused indifference.

She doesn't remember walking downstairs or how long she sat at the dining room table. Her mind felt blank yet heavy, as if her thoughts were merely being suppressed beneath the surface as her emotions took reign.

Excitement lights Arael's eyes, his hands darting and diving, describing shapes in the air, and Susannah tries to listen. She does. It's hard though. Harder than it should be.

"Of course, Arael." Her voice is mindless as she wrings her fingers together. Trying to ignore the ruthless signal that pounded in her head- it seemed Elijah Mikaelson could simply not stop thinking her name.

She sees Arael's brows crease, sees him lean and turn his head. There's a note of recrimination, of hurt.

"This isn't just about Elijah." It wasn't a question, more of a solid and studied statement. "An angel never really recovers from losing their home."

Susannah blinks heavily, forcing herself to believe it was not tears that made her do so. An image of her brothers and sisters hugging her, holding her, praising her- flashes before her rapidly closing eyes.

"You made Elijah your home."

His words settle in her chest, bringing forth a raw feeling of absolute inadequacy.

"I..." She manages, but her lips fall silent after that.

Bowing her head she tries again, a smile which is a sick parody of Susannah's real one dances over her face. For a moment, Susannah had forgotten her purpose and it got her caught in something she didn't want to be caught in.

Refocusing her eyes, she stands.

He watches her, taking in the sides of her face with her smooth skin almost golden where the light touches it, light brown where it doesn't. Her hair curls perfectly, looking more of an angel than he ever was.

The brown corduroy jacket she wore, gifted from Elijah, was one of her favorites. Worn so often that the inner arm creases in the sleeves appeared to be permanent, seemed so odd on her form now.

"I'm here." Arael's voice tickled her ears and a softened smile caressed her face. For someone who picked so relentlessly at Arael's walls, Susannah was frustratingly, primly reticent when it came to making personal revelations. Although Arael knew a great many things about her, sometimes he felt as if he knew nothing important.

"I don't know what I expected." Her voice was littered with cold humor, and beneath it a bitterness. Perhaps it was more than bitterness. Maybe even despair.

Then she felt it.

At first the unwanted presence was nothing more than a feeling, a tingling of shivers and goosebumps down her spine- the unnerving sensation of a pair of eyes watching from the shadows. But then it manifested into an actual person.

He stepped forward, his eyes following Arael's wing span in a way Elijah never did. Eyeing him speculatively, while Arael raised a slim eyebrow.

"Where is Elijah?" His voice is lax, as he leans against the table. His long forefingers rubbing against his thumb.

"Elijah is gone." She says so with dimmed eyes and a voice that wondered how Niklaus had missed it.

Klaus doesn't say anything for a long moment, just stares openly. His mouth ghosting over the past taste of Susannah's blood filling his mouth. "What a sentimental fool my brother is."

Susannah twitches, but other than that doesn't move. Her face is carved lines and it's impossible to tell what she thinks of his words. She doesn't throw any back.

"Leaving you all alone." For emphasis, Klaus's eyes examine the room around him. Darting towards Arael for a heavy moment.

His hands are gentle as he steps forward and cups her cheeks, running his thumb just below her eye, the place where tears would fall. Fluttering her eyelashes she breathes a light sigh. Her face once innocent and feral, soft and wild.

"Will you stay?"

She can't hear any judgement in his voice. Just curiosity. Even so, it stings. She doesn't need him to judge her for falling so hard, she's already been judged and found wanting. She addresses her words to her to her own hands, to the long fingers and knuckles which have bled and broken so many times.

"I don't know."

His warm hands stilled against her face, the perfection of her features ennobling her surroundings.

"My brother is such a fool." The repetition of his words seems to answer a question Klaus had been asking himself.

Drawing his hands away from her face he turns towards Arael, falling to his knees so they could be the same height.

"We have not been introduced." His hand slips out of his control too easily as it reaches for the black wing that hangs off the child's back. Arael flinches away from his touch.

Glancing over at Susannah, he sees her body tensed as if ready to jump in between them if something goes wrong. He wonders how many times something went wrong.

"What is your name?" It's at moments like this where the depth of Klaus's voice strikes her. Its lower and more resonant than what seems possible for his frame, and when the tightness is added it sounds as though his voice is being held in to keep from splitting apart.

"Arael," Flashing Klaus a look of annoyance, dark enough he almost wants to stand once again. Its impressive. He's clearly in a lot of pain, but for a moment Klaus can see him fighting back just as hard as those attacking him.

A scar runs through one of the wings, no feathers grow along that path- it looks as if someone once held the boy down and tried to removed the wings from his back. He can't help but question what it does to an angel, to have their wings all cut up.

Standing he reaches for Susannah, surprised when she wraps her hand around his.

* * *

Klaus doesn't leave.

No one had asked him to stay but he seemed to take it upon himself not to leave.

It's been three days.

She had gotten somewhat used to his reclusive nature. Disappearing for hours on time only to reappear with a handful of drawings with Susannah seared lovingly into the paper- the main attraction. She has a beautiful face, a beautiful body, and a distant mind. Very difficult to capture.

"Don't move." Klaus's voice is sharp as he draws his eyes down to the image before him. His pencil moving furiously as if the image is erasing itself with every new line he creates.

Ignoring his words she wiggles in her seat, amusement playing openly on her face. The t.v fading into background noise as the scrape of pencil to paper becomes louder.

"Have you finally captured the perfect image?" Her mouth toys over the words as she watches the rosary that hangs from his neck glint from the light pouring in through the windows.

"It's impossible to reflect the image if you don't understand the object." He glances away from his paper looking at Susannah with hooded eyes. "You confuse me, love. Not many are able to do that. Sometimes I think I've got it and then-"

Cutting himself short he looks back down at his paper and shakes his head, a hint of pride tarnishing his voice.

Thinking for a moment, she wordlessly stands and throws an arm over Klaus's shoulder. Sinking into the same chair as him, partly sitting on his lap. She could feel the inner animal inside of him, the one he fought so hard to restrain and at times, demolish.

Leaning over to glance at the image she understands his words. Physically, the image captures every small detail the outside reflects. To others in the outside world they could fool themselves into believing their was more behind it, but all Susannah see's is a two dimensional picture.

Humming lowly into his ear she whispers," I see where your frustration stems from. Perhaps If you had a bigger picture of me then reflecting it would be easy."

Klaus doesn't say anything as he wraps an arm around her waist drawing her forward. Susannah can't help think how different his touch feels from Elijah's. Elijah was always hesitant, as if he indulged too much he would be lost, whereas Klaus's touch is sure and open. He always holds her in a stern manner, a fire that represents all of him burning beneath it.

"An angel, once assigned a task must always complete it. The death of Arael was a task many fought to ensure-" Klaus alters his grip, and his right hand curves further around her body, resting on her upper thigh. She feels like he is trying to cradle her, protect her. "I knew what I was doing when I disobeyed, I knew what I was doing when I fought back for Arael. I knew there would be consequences."

Shivering she runs her hand over a scar on her upper arm. In a way surprised how easy it is to talk to Klaus, when the words refused to fall out of her mouth for Elijah. Perhaps because it's not about her, not really. It's about Arael.

"You saved him."

"I didn't." She shakes her head vehemently. Klaus can almost see the burden strapped to her chest.

"Before Arael was created I was just like every other angel, or I tried my hardest to be. It always seemed so easy for all the other angels, they never had the desire to know more than what they were told. I wanted to question them but I didn't allow myself to question orders, instead I buried them, hiding them somewhere within. I suppose that is when the hollowness started to form. I never felt right in my assigned place, but I trusted that my father wouldn't lead me astray. I had to. If I didn't what was the point?"

Susannah scrunches up her nose, looking up and slightly to the side, Klaus knows that look. It means she is trying to find a way to explain something in a way he will understand.

"But then Arael came to be. You see if an angel where to enter hell there wings would turn black, the unholiness would attack their divinity and they would afterwards be no longer welcomed into heaven. But Arael was not turned yet born with blackened wings." Susannah wets her lips, her eyes faded as she stares off into the distance. Flinching only slightly when Klaus runs his hand over her arm.

"It wasn't fair. They didn't even give him a chance- they just attacked. I had been taught to follow orders, to do as told, but he was just a child. So I followed my impulses and fought back for the angel who couldn't."

"You did save him." Klaus's voice was calm as he listened intently. She could tell he was putting himself in Arael's place.

"I hesitated." Susannah licked her lips," You can't count me a savior when a part of me wanted to turn away."

"You were afraid." Klaus countered. And that was the thing about him. When you spoke of an incident you screwed up in badly, he didn't express pity, for he would just nod his head and gesture for you to go on. As if it were completely normal.

"And Arael wasn't?"Susannah laughed somberly," He couldn't understand why he was being kicked before he had a chance to stand."

Tears brimmed her eyes, she hated that the burn now was a familiar sensation. That she cried almost every night she had been on earth.

"My own siblings- they were so willing to kill me. The siblings I have loved for centuries before wanted to rip me apart piece by piece."

Klaus stared at her, brushing her tears away. "You don't have to go on."

Placing his forehead against hers, his eyes gleaming in a nice kind of way. "I understand now."

His eyes roamed boldly over her form. Stopping to appreciate certain aspects of her for a moment

"Klaus?" He only lifted his head at the sound of his name," Do you think Elijah will return?"

Klaus tilts his head deliberating. This is the first time she had mentioned him since his absence became known. "I almost wish he wouldn't." His voice is soft, almost too quiet for him.

The quiet place inside of her starting getting louder and louder at his words.

"He will return. Of this I have no doubt."

"He was able to leave." Susannah said with a soft whisper, laying her head on Klaus's shoulder.

"I know my brother has seen you in ways I have not and likewise...but if seeing you is anything like it is now- My brother will not be able to resist."

* * *

 _ **This is honestly more of a filler chapter before I start introducing some well known characters to Susannah but here you go!**_


	16. Chapter 16

The sky was a grimvault of sorrow, as the angels cried down flood after flood upon the small, insignificant town of Mystic Falls.

The following day and night had been washed down by the grief of the angels, though she didn't speculate the cause of their celestial distress. Her eyes narrowed in a willful detachment, as she openly gazed up at the sky.

Rain hit hard on her soft skin, soaking through her clothes. The wild thought of returning to heaven skyrocketed guilt through her. The idea of reclaiming her halo meant leaving Arael...and Elijah.

"Why are you here Akhol and Seoras?" Her voice slipped through the air to be swallowed by the trees around her.

They were warriors. Obedience carved into their very skin with a blade as sharp as God's wrath, as their wings moved the wind around him.

Seoras's eyes were shining, his face solemn, his hand on the hilt of his blade as he carried forward. His wings narrow and long to produce quicker flight. "So it is true, you have fallen to earth."

Susannah resisted the urge to shiver at his sharpened tone, they were family. Even if the scars they put on her very being throbbed.

"I will not ask again." Susannah surprised herself with the sternness in her voice. It was as if she was still the angel that fought for her father, with blood on her hands and wings as she did what ordered.

Akhol smiled, circling behind her as he promptly drew his blade and slid it down her back, grazing her skin without ripping it open."You forsake paradise for this? You relish your taste of hell and strangle heaven's love, You think you still deserve these wings?"

"I will not beg for forgiveness. Not from you. Not from anyone."

"There will be no redemption."

A sudden flash of anger, an anger so solid, so deep within her that only one who had fallen to earth could produce, caused her to turn so suddenly. She had never used her abilities on her siblings in such a manner. But that didn't seem to matter as the power waved out with a callous flick of her wrist.

As a struggled growl bubbled from her siblings mouth, and their blood grazed the dirt grounds around them, she couldn't find it within her to stop. Because for a mere second they could feel it, they could feel the deep and terrible pain that she felt when knocked to the floor. "Although I feel as though I am not the one in need of mercy, am I correct to believe so?"

She could kill them. It would be so easy. They were young and overconfident in their premature abilities. They wouldn't be able to take on the full force of Susannah. Dropping her hand to her sides she cursed angrily.

It wasn't fair. It wasn't fair that she had to be the one to fall and suddenly lose not one, but two homes. It wasn't fair that she could no longer reach up and feel the love of her siblings. It wasn't fair that she lost everything.

She wanted to scream and curse and drag her father to earth to demand the answers she so rightfully deserved.

"Go back to your home."

Coughing up the remaining blood in his mouth, Akhol stood. "The one who used to heal and lead us now forcing us to the ground."

"You attacked me." Susannah hissed her eyes darting over there weakened forms." You gave me no choice but to fall."

"You disobeyed." The words sent a shock straight to her stomach. _Disobedience_ had never been which she wanted...She was nothing but a fool to believe her father would ever allow such a thing from her. She wasn't human. She didn't get a choice. She didn't deserve one.

In the silence those words leave behind, she can hear shallow breathing. It comes from the forest and is gone so rapidly she almost doubts it was there to begin with. Her hands drop, and her cheeks feel heavy from the sharp winds.

"I know." A cold ice bubbles up into her abdomen, filling the hollow space. "I can't fail Arael the way I failed all of heaven."

Akhol opens his mouth, closes it, tries again. His sandy blonde hair and the green eyes of his vessel doing nothing for the full strength of his being. Running an open hand over his jaw, he stares coldly at Susannah.

He knows his sister. Her arms are braced by her sides and he back is tense. She's not hiding any secret monster, she's a fallen angel who's been hurt by all of heaven. By her body language he's reminded of how it wasn't just emotionally. She's not running. She's clearly on edge, scared even, but she's not running.

"What makes him above us?" Seoras says with a voice so light it could be mistaken for a mumble. Shifting his weight he looks up at Susannah, and she's reminded of how young he truly is. Only a preteen in human standards.

"I- I just did what I thought was right in the moment, Seoras." Susannah clenches her eyes shut, not able to stand seeing him in front of her with begging eyes. She remembers so clearly when he was as young as Arael...she was the one to teach him how to fly. "I would have done the same for any of you...because all of you are my family."

"No." Akhol says tightly. His eyes darkened with storms as he crosses his strong arms over his chest. "You can't claim us as family during one second and deny us the next. I heard your prayers Susannah. I listened- because I thought you would come back to lead us- to be with us. I heard you- you said Arael was the only one you considered family...You said-"

"What else was I supposed to do?" Her voice powered through the forest, her power swirling dangerously through the air-shaking the grounds beneath it. "The warriors of heaven tore at my skin and flooded heaven with my blood."

His voice was borderline hysterical, the voice of a child who had felt abandoned. "You're not the only one with wounds."

Susannah's breath is heaving again, her chest inflating and deflating enough to where she could feel it move, she hadn't wanted to hit something so much in months. Maybe years. Less obvious than heavens but more deadly.

It was easier to think of heaven as the emotionless bastard that willingly sent her off, rather than patrons of obedience who were scorched by the pain of Susannah's fall. It was easier to think of Heaven as something unreachable to her and Arael.

The vines that wrapped around the flowers seemed to strangle them away from the sudden flood of water from the sky, bending at her knees she unhooked its web with watery eyes.

To see a piece of heaven so close sent a form of dread into her heart.

In that moment she really wished Elijah was here. Susannah doubted he would be able to end the shooting pains in her chest, but he could soothe them with his soft eyes and loving arms.

"Why are you here?"

"We were summoned."

 _Summoned?_ To summon an angel was to risk death. Especially by force- her siblings would never come to earth otherwise.

"Leave," She forces her voice to be quieter when she speaks. Hunching her shoulders.

Akhol rocks back and forth on his heel, his eyes focusing on something behind her. "We can't."

Susannah swears for a moment her heart nearly stops.

* * *

She didn't return to home. That would only remind her of Elijah.

Digging her nails into her palms she trudged forward, the ends of her hair dripping generously. Even though she left heaven it felt as if they left her just as Elijah did. They did so with a finality that bordered on indifference. She knew she could return back to where Arael and Klaus would annoyingly stick to her side, but something felt so off inside she just couldn't.

Battling the sickly feeling inside that left a sour taste inside of her mouth, she wandered aimlessly. With no real direction, the parallels to her fall on earth where so obvious it made her think about the possibilities had she not met Elijah.

Would her introduction to humanity and the inhumane be so seamless? She admired Elijah, his loyalty, his strength- but now she just feels utterly sad in the same place that was once filled with affection.

Surprisingly though, she just wanted him back more than anything. They wouldn't win on one of those game shows Arael was keen on watching, the ones with couples who knew each other's most desired vacation place. They would probably fail so horribly they would be kicked out. It didn't really matter to Susannah, the superficial stuff could come later.

She just needed him now.

Kicking the muddy dirt with her worn shoes, she felt loneliness wrap around her core. Was Elijah all alone? Did he miss her?

Stopping to examine a torn advertisement with a couple laughing and staring deeply into each other's eyes, she leaned to pick it up. Methodically she catalogs the way they lean into each other. She could almost hear their imaginary laughter trill over to her. It made her want to know how to laugh as well.

"Your an angel." The voice was nothing but a whisper over the winds and rain but Susannah could still hear the quiver that plagued it. She watches Elena's eyes dart over to Akhol and Seoras, as if they were the real threat.

Looking up, with hardly any interest, Susannah examined the doppelganger. She noticed the way her body was turned away, as if poised to run. Choking back a laugh at the mere idea...as if running would actually save her from Susannah.

Tilting her head she watched with disinterest. Susannah would be lying if she said she wasn't somewhat amused by the temper lighting the dopplegangers words.

"They kill- you help the originals-"

"Spare me the long boring speech of all the agony they caused when both of your lovers have done the same." Her words were laced with thorns as they made their way to the doppleganger. She couldn't see the innocence Elijah spoke so fondly of.

Silence seemed to ripped from the girl's throat as she swallowed heavily.

"You're supposed to be good."

"No you mean I'm supposed to follow whatever you humans think is good. That we angels aren't supposed to have opinions that challenge that of a human's, no, we are only to follow the righteous order of what you think is right."

"That's not what I said." Elena clenched her fist, her lips quivering as she stepped forward. She was upset, that much obvious. She couldn't fathom an existence where her perceived good and bad weren't actually good and bad.

"Oh but that's what you meant." Stepping forward, watching the puny human stumble back, for a moment she felt utterly unstoppable. Susannah could see the temptation that bloodshed wrung forth.

Elena turned and ran sensing the sudden change in the air. Looking back at Susannah as if she were nothing but another threat. And that should have worried Susannah. That should have bothered her, she was a patron of earth after all. Susannah should actively be seeking to make friends and such. But now, with her family against her and Elijah long gone, she felt that friendship was a fool's trail.

"That was unkind." Seoras whispered lowly.

"Death would have been unkind."

Wringing his hands together, Akhol shook his head. "I think that girl knows who summoned us."

* * *

It tasted like betrayal as Elijah allowed himself to indulge in Katerina.

She wasn't anything but a placeholder, and she knew that. She knew that Elijah was using her body, she knew he was wishing more than anything that it was this mysterious woman beneath him. That every time he glimpsed into her eyes disappointment was the only thing he felt.

It wasn't really about anything other than figuring out what his past meant to him.

He found that his past was important, but it didn't really affect his present as much as he thought it did. He found that the piece Katerina took of him wasn't as vital as the piece he wanted to give to Susannah.

Digging his fangs ruthlessly into the curve of her neck, clasping his fingers tightly within her hair, he growled when the flush of blood hit his tongue. It was nothing special, but it did soothe the hunger for a second.

Her legs wrapped around his hips as he ruthlessly took her, there was no affection wrapped into it, just a thoughtless maneuver to forget about colorful eyes...even for a second.

That's when it hit him.

The icy feeling deep in his chest.

Susannah was in trouble.

He didn't know how he knew, only that she needed him. She actually needed him.

Pulling away from Katerina so rapidly he stumbled back, his hands fumbling for any clothes it could find as his feet touched the cold hotel floor.

"What's going on."

"She needs me."

Katerina frowned in annoyance, her body flushed in a sheen of sweat. "What?"

He felt the icy feeling subside. He knew she was okay. But he also knew that he needed to be with her. Elijah now knew how deep his feelings went for Susannah. He now knew that this was no longer something he could avoid.

That piece he tried so desperately to hold onto...had already been given.

* * *

 _ **I kind of hate this chapter...but okay.**_


	17. Chapter 17

_**Now this chapter will have some trigger warnings in it- please read at your own expense/ this made me cry.**_

* * *

Arael had once been a stranger to the jagged hardships of everyday life. It hadn't been a long period of time, but it was something before it turned to nothing.

Before there had been hope. Just a tiny flicker against the winds.

Standing on the brink of something he couldn't describe all he can feel is the weight of them on his back. They cause bile to run up his throat-and sometimes he can force himself to forget that heavy burden is there-but as of right now they are all he can feel.

It seems the winds have finally won.

The rain is heavy outside, he vaguely remembers watching Susannah walk out the door to face the oncoming storm. Arael is glad she left. Sometimes it hurt being around her. It was too hard to explain what it felt like knowing that no matter how hard you try, something you're born with and can't control will almost always be your downfall.

The church is empty and he's amazed that the crucified statue of Jesus hadn't started crying blood yet, Lately the little voice in his head has been telling him dumb stuff like that. That he doesn't belong in a church because God doesn't hear the prayers of the fallen.

Despite everything he makes it a priority to pray at night, prays that someone, somewhere understands he had no choice in the matter, and that this someone is kind, even though all the other angels seem so very contradictory to that. Someone, somewhere has to believe in Arael. Someone, somewhere has to know he's good.

The blade feels awkward in his small hands as he shifts it to find some form of comfort. Searching for inner strength and coming up empty. Looking at his reflection with immense distaste. He is, or had been, an angel. Now what was he? Letting out a bitter and choked laugh he realizes he is no better than any human.

He walks through the aisles of seats that lead up to the altar. Twisting the knife in his hands easily, as if it couldn't actually hurt him.

Feeling himself stumble as if somehow the metaphorical weight became real.

He doesn't want these wings. He can't hide them away as easily as Susannah can- they are his mark, his failure, his worth.

Laying the blade flat against his wings he breathes. It makes him feel powerful, in control of his fate. He closes his eyes as he tilts the blade methodically, imagining the image from the perspective of someone watching. He just wants the burden that hangs off his back gone.

Bringing the blade down with as much force that his small body can muster, he waits for the pain.

He waits for the same familiar cry to fall from his mouth.

He waits for blood to cover his hands and feathers to fall to the floor.

He waits to be free.

It seems he waits for nothing. For when Arael opens his eyes, there is a hand wrapped around the blade. Instead of Arael's blood falling to the floor it is Klaus's. Instead of Arael feeling the pain, Klaus takes it.

"I-" He had forgotten all about Klaus Mikaelson.

Klaus doesn't seem interested in his words, his blue kaleidoscope eyes focused on the wound on his hand. The wound he took for Arael. He is bent at his knees, huddled closer than he's ever been to Arael.

Stepping back he glances around the church with a wry smile, somewhat amused at Arael's chosen location. Arael tried not to statrle, tried not to react.

"I never liked churches," Klaus muttered animatedly, his eyes darted from wall to wall, as if he was actively trying to memorize the location. "There was always a sense of self righteousness among the ones who attended. Few were truly of pure intent."

Arael focuses on the ground, his lips pursed and his eyes somewhat watery.

"You're going to pretend I'm not here? Is that your plan?" Klaus leaned forward so his face would be the only thing Arael would see if he looked up. His smile was unfaltering. It wasn't a malevolent one, and it wasn't one born from affection. It was simply there.

Arael refused to meet his eyes, concentrating on the slow even strokes of his hand against the floor, ignoring the slight tremor in his hands.

"How long has it been now? Pretending you're perfectly fine?" His expression softened out into one of gentle concern. It looked odd. The whole situation looked odd. Klaus Mikaelson willingly in a church with an angel sitting at his feet.

"Don't." Arael hissed, his eyes dark and venomous. Twisting as far away from Klaus as he could possibly get, stumbling back in step again and landing on the floor.

Klaus raises an eyebrow and tilts his head, almost looking nothing like the monster they say he is.

"You don't have to bleed to earn forgiveness."

Arael lets his head fall forward, his dark hair brushing over his watery eyes. "It's the only penance I know."

"Begging for forgiveness for a crime you didn't commit." Klaus runs his hands through his hair, shiting to look taller." You and your sister are one in the same you know that. Tell me do you blame her for-"

"Susannah saved me." Arael speaks with such determination, and overall truth. As if his sister was his everything and anyone who dared to try and tarnish that image was merely delusional. "She doesn't deserve any blame."

"And here you are giving her some anyways." His voice is sharp and scolding. Watching Arael flinch as if he half expected Klaus to lay his fist down against him. "If anything happens to you, even by your own hand, she will blame herself. I know you see it Arael. You're not blind- you know how close she is to breaking apart."

This wasn't about Susannah, not really. Sure it was true she was breaking just beneath the surface, and if Elijah had bothered to check he would have seen it as well. But, Arael wouldn't see himself if he didn't see Susannah first. She was his family. Klaus was just hoping family was enough.

Scoffing Arael stood, brushing himself off. "I'm fine."

"Sure you are."

"I am."

"Who are you trying to convince here?" Klaus circled around to check Arael's wings, making sure that he made no new marks on the delicate feathers. Feeling his breath settle back in his chest when he found none.

The silence that followed was enough of an answer.

"Let me have the knife," Klaus said, a little more sharply than he intended.

"Why?" Arael immediately tightened his grip on the object covered in Klaus's blood, his eyes owlish.

"Because I'm asking for it." This time much more sharply than intended, taking a steadying breath he tries again."Just let me have it..."

Arael dipped his head in what looked like a nod and, very reluctantly, allowed Klaus to take- or rather wrench- the knife from his grip.

In the soft glow of the church light he can see Arael's face. He looked like he had been in a terrible fight- and lost. His face was haggard, gaunt. The stare in his eyes was beyond confused; it was like a wild animal.

"When's the last time you slept?" Klaus aimed his question carefully making a deliberate move to keep his voice steady, focusing his eyes on Arael's dull blue ones.

Arael's oddly charged stillness broke and he began pacing."What?"

Slowly, carefully, Klaus asked again. "When was the last time you slept?"

Arael's eyes flashed with what looked like rage. "I am not a child. I don't need you to monitor my sleep schedule for me, _Klaus_."

He tried to move past him, but Klaus used his body to block him. "Can you just answer me?"

Arael shoved his arms straight, pushing Klaus away from him, hard enough to shatter a normal human's rib."Just get out of my way! I'm not a child." He snarled, his voice weaved with darkness and pain. "What exactly do you want from me anyways, huh? Using me to get into my sister's-"

"-Do you know how delusional you sound. You are a child. Nothing more than a child-"

"-You're nothing more than an abomination-"

"Me the _abomination_?" Klaus repeated his temper flaring.

"Yes, you." Arael stepped forward, a vicious smile painted on his lips."- killing is all you know how to do."

Klaus dug into his last shred of self control. _He's only a child._ With a great deal of effort he pulled back, every muscle in his body taut and shaking with rage, as if tethered by a tight line of control. "No, I know what you are doing. You shift the focus off yourself by trying to enrage me-"

"Trying?"

Through clenched teeth, Klaus continues, pretending Arael hadn't spoken. "I want to help you."

"Why?" Arael growls as if the very idea is chaotic and overall stupid.

 _"I think you're unraveling, Arael."_ And that was it, his tether snapping. His shout thundered over the rain. He'd forgotten how explosive , how intimidating his own rage could be sounded when vented without warning.

He regretted the words as soon as they left his mouth. Arael reacted as if he'd been punched. He stumbled backwards into the wall-looking confused, almost frightened. Klaus didn't speak, because if he spoke he would take his words back. He couldn't allow himself to placate Arael, the boy didn't need to be comforted- he needed to be stopped.

And so the silence stretched uncomfortably- until broken by Arael's timid voice. "You think I'm crazy?"

"Arael-"

But it was too late. Swinging wildly, as Arael desperately tried to break free and run as far as he could- taking almost every punch Arael threw waiting for his body to wain of energy. "I can't let you leave."

"There's nothing wrong with me!" He protested wildly, begging almost.

"Take it easy- we are on the same side. Just...breathe."He was visibly struggling now, despite his exhaustion, his chest rising and falling in erratic breaths, and frayed mind set, it was as if some sort of weird energy kept him from assuming rest.

Arael was trying. he was trying to take breaths, but it didn't seem too effective.

"It's okay."

"Stop saying that. Nothing's okay."

"Arael-"

"It isn't supposed to be like this!" Arael stands, his fist balled as tears run down his pale cheeks. His body shivering as if the wind could potentially blow him away. "We were supposed to be perfect. We weren't supposed to be mistakes. That's not what angels are. Don't you see, I didn't want to be born like this- how could he make me like this. Our father loves us, yet he had to know that my wings-"

Hysteria takes over as he crumples to the grounds, bending at his knees, his wings wrapping around his body. Klaus's stomach hollows as he wraps his arms around Arael to keep him from clawing at the wings on his back.

"You need to leave before I hurt you." Arael whispers, his eyes almost black.

Klaus smiled at him almost affectionately. "You won't hurt me." _Not really._

"Why won't you just let me go?"

"Because your a mess and you somewhat remind me of me- if I can't help myself what can I do?"

"I'm not a charity case."

"You're not," Klaus agreed.

Glancing at the knife with sorrow filled eyes, he breaks down once again.

"You can't erase the pain like this, Arael," With a grave voice he lifts the angel off the floor and onto his lap. All Klaus can see is a child. A small and helpless child given the worst part of an already horrible deal.

There are no miracle fixes, Klaus knows this.

Things are always going to go wrong.

He leans his head on his shoulder, snuffling out sob after sob. Much like Henrick had done when he was younger.

Soon his breathing evens out as he falls into a deep slumber.

And for some reason, instead of seeing him peacefully sleeping, all Klaus can see is Henrick's dead body as he picks Arael up and carried him out the church, leaving the knife behind.

* * *

 _The red needle on the speedometer tips past 90, and Elijah leans gently on the gas. The engine responds to his touch with hungry, swift precision. (Like the best lovers do), Elijah thought with a sad little smile), and the car surges forward into the narrow tunnels, the headlights creating small openings of light._

 _It's a glorious night. Not that he can really see it beyond his speed, but the wind rushing past him through the open window feels seductively cool on his face, it carries the scent of jasmine and honeysuckle, and the sky overhead sparkles magnificently, boastfully, in the moonless star light. It reminds him of summer nights long ago. Just leaning back- thinking of nothing._

 _No real care in the world. (Was there ever really a time where he had no care in the world?-he isn't sure about that)_

 _Thumping his fingers against the steering wheel to a song he doesn't remember ever hearing before. He hasn't felt this good, this alive, in longer than he can remember._

 _It's a shame it's nothing but a dream._

 _The brunette in the passenger seat slips her hand over his knee. She's so beautiful, crushingly so. Just like his whole life. Her slender body seemed out of scale in normal human proportions, its line delicate, so fragile, so exaggerated that she looked like a stylistic drawing of a woman and made the correct proportions of a normal human being seem heavy and awkward._

 _An air of cold serenity passed around her, as her vicious mouth quirked upwards._

 _"Where are we going?" Elijah knew if this had been reality they already would have wrecked. He's been staring at her for too long, but he doesn't make any attempt to look anywhere else. She was the kind of beauty meant to be worshipped. The kind you built temples for and offered sacrifices._

 _He almost wished he had something in his empty hands to give her._

 _"Who cares. Just don't stop." Her words were more seductive than anything else as they trickled from her mouth. The natural way she laid on seat, staring at him with those eyes of hers._

 _She crosses one lithesome leg over the other and leans in closer to him._

 _"You are perfect." Elijah whispers enjoying the words on his tongue. He smiles at her, so op_ _enly. There is no pressure other than the gentle rhymes of the winds._

 _"Not really," Is her immediate offhanded response. She flicks her hair over her shoulder, flashing him a look she didn't give to many._

 _It happens so quickly as he turns away from her for only a second, just long enough to see another Susannah in the middle of the street. The headlights creating a ghostly shadow on her golden skin. His head jerks back to the passenger seat, dread settling through him at the emptiness of it. He shunts the steering wheel to the left violently, and the car spins out of control. He slams on the brakes but it's too late._

 _The car careers off the road and goes flying, dipping and diving through the darkness._

 _Yeah, this is more like his usual dreams._

 _And then with a surprisingly lucid thud, he honestly expected to awaken at this point, the car touches down. In the sand. On a beach. On a beautiful, sundrenched day._

 _The car faces the sea, and Elijah stares at through the windshield at the tranquil, iridescent blue ocean that stretches to the horizon roll towards him, in large foamy waves across the white sand. The sun shines down from a cloudless blue sky, where gulls glide playfully on a light breeze. The sand is white in a way he's never seen white sand before._

 _"Hello Elijah." Susannah sits besides him in the passenger seat. Her body is clad in a scandalous bathing suit that hardly covers anything and makes him glad it's just the two them and no one else. She faces him with hesitance, almost apprehension._

 _"Why were you in the road?" Elijah reaches out to hold onto her but she avoids his touch._

 _"I needed to get your attention," Her voice is solid and different from before, yet still a lyrical melody._

 _"You already had it."_

 _Susannah appears to consider for a moment."I didn't think I did. Why are you coming back to me when Katerina waits for you?"_

 _Elijah swallows. He didn't expect such words to leave her mouth, and the way she looks at him. The lack of pain in her eyes and the inherent detachment in her voice, it makes it hurt all the more._

 _Farewells can be shattering but Elijah knew his return would be worse. All he could see was the endless depth of her eyes. "Because I'm a selfish man."_

 _Susannah laugh ruefully, her hair shaking off her shoulders. "Selfish for who?_

 _Pausing he drags his hand over the steering wheel, her voice repeats in his head._

 _"For wanting you." He drops his head, feeling lower than he had when he first left._

 _"You could've had me."She was suddenly next to his ear, he could feel her breath on his ear and neck. The warmth pulsating from her feminine body as she pressed herself against his side. Running her hand over his jaw,"You could have indulged with me. I wouldn't mind staining my wings if it meant laying with you."_

 _He touches her. And damn it all to hell she feels so real, so soft._

 _"Did leaving help you find clarity?" She inquires so innocently, with a smile that was the exact opposite of her demeanor._

 _Elijah's arms jut out in awkwards angles, not quites belligerent but not relaxed either, as if they weren't all the way under her control. "You were all I could think of, no one else but you."_

 _She looked sad, her eyes clouded with tears she hadn't been able to shed. "There's been something wrong inside of me since you left."_

 _Drawing his eyes shut, trying to ignore the way her words made the guilt bundle so thickly inside of him._

 _"It feels big and heavy...and sometimes I can't breathe through it. It's not like the sadness I felt when falling to earth. It feels like I lost something important. You are after all Elijah Mikaelson, known for leaving and sometimes not returning."_

 _His eyes burn and he tells himself it's not tears. "You have to understand that love has brought me nothing but pain throughout the years. I didn't think I could take losing another person...No, I didn't think I could take losing you. The second I met you, I knew losing you would be one to many a wound."_

 _"Elijah" he hears Susannah say in a careful, hesitant tone."Can I ask you one more thing?"_

 _"Can I stop you?" He grumbles lowly, psyching himself up for the next emotional assault._

 _Susannah simply stares at him watching the water, he can no longer look at her. "You haven't referred to me by name yet. Why is that?"_

 _That isn't what he was expecting. It doesn't fuel his guilt, or heighten his sense of helplessness. Stopping he briefly glances at the source of the question. With narrowed eyes, studying her, as if trying to figure out something vital._

 _"The beach of Tasmania, huh, five hundred yards." Instead of looking at her he's now looking at the beautifully advertisement like beach._

 _"At low tide." Susannah says weakly._

 _"So what is this? What am I trying to tell myself?" Elijah runs his fingers through his hair, his mouth drawn into a sharp line._

 _Susannah frowns," What makes you think you're trying to tell yourself anything?"_

 _"Because you're in my head," Elijah growls out," Your apart of my thoughts, you're always apart of my thoughts. There has to be some reason for it."_

 _His companion regards him with a wry smile. "Even in sleep your arrogance never fails to amaze me."_

 _"You know what amazes me, that even in my sleep you're still so forceful."_

 _When Susannah levels her gaze with his, it's of such fierce intensity that Elijah feels a small prickling sensation at the base of his spine up his neck. He feels almost dizzy for a moment, as if something is reaching into him, touching and enveloping his innermost thoughts, communicating with them, Pulling them towards someone...it's not an unfamiliar sensation, but even in his dreams it takes his breath away._

 _"I want you to understand."_

 _"Understand what?" Elijah chokes out._

 _And then Susannah hauls off and slaps him with all the force her little body can muster. Which is quite a bit if you were to ask Elijah. It was an open handed one that left the right side of his face stinging. He is shocked, not as much at the action but at the acute pain._

 _"That I'm real," Susannah leans closer to his face," That I'm in your dream but I'm not of it."_

 _Elijah stares at her dazedly, rubbing his jaw._

 _"Susannah-" He winces as her name leave his mouth, he had forgotten how painful it was for only a second._

 _Elijah opens his mouth and she shushes him once again. Placing her hand over his lips. Pushing her hand away he makes sure to meet her beautiful eyes._

 _"Go on Susannah, what are you waiting for?" A thought has occurred to him, so sharp with deadly clarity. "Show some wrath. Make me suffer. Make me pay...for betraying you in the worst possible way."_

 _"I want you to be silent!" Susannah hissed, her lips turning up into a sneer._

 _He can see the panic starting in her chest, can see it rising to her eyes. A misty haze upon the horizons as her lips part and choked breath after breath falls from her lips. He watches her anger melt to be replaced with desperation...for what he isn't sure. "I just can't take it anymore."_

 _"I just can't."_

 _"I can't do it."_

 _He lifts her from her seat, placing her on his lap. Her voice is a whisper, forged from darkness and a deep melancholy. Her remaining strength fraying outwards, attempting to wrap around something to keep hold._

 _Placing her hands over her eyes, as if she can't bare to see any longer._

 _"Susannah, I need you to look at me."_

 _"I'm just not enough, for heaven, for Arael...for you."_

 _The tears were burning him. They rolled down her face as her body shook with sobs, and he could handle anger- he could handle rage...he couldn't handle her tears. The raw sense of protectiveness that burned through him, staggered him._

 _Susannah wasn't meant to cry. Ever._

 _"I am not enough in myself..."_

 _"Listen to me," Elijah whispered into her hair as he clutched her body to his. "I need you to stop."_

 _"Stop failing everyone...?" She says with a wince as she struggles to break their embrace, her cheeks cold as the tears sting her face._

 _"Stop letting everything overtake you. You are more than enough-if someone, anyone can't accept you they are the ones failing, not you." Elijah places his hands on her hips, her skin so warm, so soft, so...perfect. "That includes me, I am so deeply sorry for the pain I've put you through."_

 _Laying his head against hers, feeling the puff of her breath against his lips. "I'm so sorry that I left when I knew you needed me."_

 _"I didn't say-"_

 _"You don't have to say something for it to be known, Susannah."_

 _He carefully trails his fingers down the side of her face, taking her tears with his motions. "I'm so sorry that I wasn't there for you."_

 _"Elijah-"_

 _"I'm so sorry that I thought- for even a second- that my past meant more to me than you do."_

 _Closing her eyes, she swallows a soft whimper. "And I'm so sorry for this-"_

 _Her eyes dart open, only to shut again at the feel of Elijah's lips against hers._


	18. Chapter 18

It was hardly a ghost of a touch. A soft breath on her puckered lips. A glorious pressure that made her chest tighten and stomach flutter. It was shockingly sweet, sort and soft- exactly what she didn't need.

Drawing herself purposely from Elijah's mind, his private life that unwinded inside of his dreams.

"Who is he?" Akhol's voice tickled from the darkness of the abandoned farm home they had found. The floor's were littered with debris and burnt out cigarettes, the smell of alcohol hanging in the humid air.

Flinching at the sound of his voice, she forced her head up. Her eyes first catching the broken down bookshelves that looked so close to snapping, drawing her eyes further down taking in the books that fell-ripped and useless. The words faded into almost nothing- blurred to the point where it was illegible but readable enough to arouse curiosity.

"He is nothing."

This is where they would stay.

It was broken down and falling apart- laughable that such divine creatures would be stuck in such a place.

Crossing her arms Susannah stood by her decision, she would not allow them anywhere near Arael...Arael came first, she needed to remember that.

Akhol didn't say anything more but his disgust was obvious. It was in the way he took a subtle step backwards, looking around as if searching for escape from Susannah. As if her unholiness would somehow latch itself onto him.

Bringing his chilled fingers to press into the warm skin of his cheek. "It's cold-" he pauses glancing around worriedly," It was never cold like this in heaven."

The rain had long chilled along her skin, she didn't care, not the way Akhol did. She had long stopped making comparisons- that only lead to more pain. Stepping forward she hears the wood creak beneath her feet.

"I'll be back tomorrow."

Her hands clenched at her sides, her body jittery and electrocuted. She needed to get away from them.

They didn't say anything.

That only further spurred how much she missed her father. With a truly painful ache that spread from her heart through her chest, into her arms, down her torso, settling in the bones of her legs. She missed their family. She missed when it was simply about saving people.

She missed her life making sense.

And that's when she heard it.

It was Arael's human heart sending out a silent prayer. He did so often, more than he realized. It wasn't a conscious prayer; it was simply a steady flow of _please,_ with all thoughts on another, with all hopes on another, all energy focused outwards.

Seoras and Akhol both tilted their heads the way it was coming from- angels always responded to another's call. Susannah watched them struggle to control their instincts...struggle to not land in shades of grey and remain in only black and white.

Susannah didn't stick around to offer and farewells, Arael needed her and that was all that mattered.

* * *

He didn't announce his return, his just appeared.

Sitting in a chair near the fireplace, his jacket unbuttoned with as he sat drunk in his surroundings. Elijah had never noticed how prominent Susannah's scent had been, how warm it was, how it flowed.

And he doesn't want to admit it, doesn't even want to think it, but deep down he knows that, on-top of everything else, that there's this feeling of jealousy churning within his gut. Because it wasn't just Susannah's and Arael's scent that graced these walls, because he knew Susannah chose to confide in Niklaus, is in constant contact with him...and he can't help but wonder if he'd been a massive idiot this whole time and that behind his back, Susannah and Klaus laughed about how pathetically in love he was with Susannah.

Even if he was the one to leave.

"Why are you here?" Her voice was shadowed and her eyes were hyper aware, as if she were just on the edge of running away and giving it all up. He can see the blue tint on her lips and the way her body shivered, her long hair held down by water.

"Your freezing."

"That doesn't answer my question," Her voice is sharp and her eyes narrowed. He can feel her rage, almost as if it were a tangible item, hot and molting like a volcano more than ready to erupt. There is power there to, more than when he had left.

Getting up he tugs his jacket all the way off. The air around her is bitterly cold and humid- such an enchanting combination. Cold licked at her face and down her skin, chilling her fingers into clumsy numbness. Her muscles stiff- Elijah can't tell if that's because of how cold she is or how close he'd gotten.

"I don't want your damn jacket!" Susannah snapped, a hot fury sliding down her veins making her hands shake. It warmed the cold that bit at her skin, it warmed almost everything. Jerking the jacket out of his grip she threw it to the ground, feeling a sick sense of satisfaction when Elijah frowned. He probably thought she was acting juvenile...she didn't care.

"Susannah-"

"I don't want your chaste kisses, I don't want your weak form of affection, I don't want you here."

"You needed me."

Susannah head whipped towards him, her nostrils flared, her eyes watery. "And you needed your doppleganger beneath you. I thought that took precedence over everything."

Elijah's fingers tremble as the shadow of regret works its way into his eyes. His soul dimming as he rolled backwards in step. He looks hopeless almost. She should feel gratified at the way he flinches at her words, instead she's disgusted, she's disgusted with herself and her jealousy and with the fact that she had been stupid enough to believe she ever meant a _damn_ thing to Elijah.

"Was it all just a game to you? I bet it was so _convenient_ that you were able to find me before anyone else. I can't fathom how utterly idiotic I am for thinking for even one second that I was enough for you...Did I even mean anything to you or was I just a means to an end?"

"How can you ask me that?" Elijah sounds appalled, but she doesn't know how to believe it. It takes her back to when he stood in front of his family and lied so easily. _Once A Liar Always A Liar._ "Susannah, of course you mean-"

"Don't you dare touch me," She hisses when Elijah reaches for her, scrambling backwards until she's standing in the opposite side of the room. She hates that her heartbreak is worn on her face as tears slip from her eyes. She hates that he could stay so neutral.

"Katerina," Elijah whispers her name like it's the worst kind of poison out there, and there's a blazing anger in his eyes now, too, and they shine a luminescent brown in the semi-darkness. "Doesn't mean _anything_. But you do. You mean _everything_ to me."

"Stop _lying_." And she's pleading now, because she can't hear this, she can't hear words like that because it makes her heart ache, and it's too shattered and too shredded and she can't _take_ any more of this, can't take any more of Elijah.

"I'm not lying. Yes, Katerina and I had sexual intercourse – is that what you want to hear? Because we did." Her words are etched with frustration and it stings, and Susannah feels the tears gathering behind her eyes, can imagine all too easily Elijah's lips on hers, his hands all over her and god, it makes her feel sick to her stomach but she can't wipe the thoughts away. "But you were… you were lost to me, you were with Niklaus...do you think that didn't hurt me too? To know you were with him? With him happy and open...open in a way you never were with me?"

"Don't make this my fault." She feels leaden, wants to sink to the floor and never get up again, but she can't, she needs to be strong. "You left saying all these words that in the end don't mean anything. You left- not me Elijah. And now you come back acting as if nothing's changed."

"Because you needed me!" Elijah practically yells, and there are tears behind his eyes too, but Susannah doesn't know if they are real or fake and she can't think anymore because it hurts.

"Because I love you." Her voice cracks from the rawness of her emotions, and she wants to burn with her anger and bleed, bleed out her words. She's been ripped open by Elijah, ripped open and left for dead.

Grief tackles him, rolling in like waves. The level of trauma only something that can be done from the inside. "It was never about hurting you- I have lived for over a thousand years- my past is always going to be around me...I just needed to confront that. I needed to know I could let go."

"I guess you'll be letting go of two _playthings_ then." Susannah turned away feeling so sick and devastated.

"Don't-"

"Make you choose? You already made your choice, Elijah. You chose her, instead of me. You left me to understand, by myself, that I loved you. You could've stayed, you never had to leave. But instead you left me behind and you never once looked back- so I have no idea how to believe anything you say to me." Once she starts talking, she's clueless on how to stop. Every doubt and every ounce of pain she felt comes spilling out, and Elijah is just there.

"There was never a choice, Susannah, if there had been it would have been you- over and over again I would have chosen you."

Shaking her head, she grabs the bottle Elijah had been so keen on before. Unscrewing the lid and letting it wash down her throat. It burned, it hurt so bad and she couldn't help the coughs that tumbled afterwards...but she knew eventually it would distort the pain into something else.

He rips it from her hands, his eyes darkened. "If you continue drinking like that you'll pass out."

"Maybe that's the point."Susannah is sullen as she glares at Elijah's hands. "What's it like Elijah? To know that you drive people to wanted unconsciousness?"

Elijah's never seen her so angry – her eyes are dark, flashing with a fury that's probably been building for a long time, and they all come pouring out now and really, Elijah deserves this.

He deserves all of this – all of this destruction that he's wrought, crashing down around him – and karma really is a bitch, after all.

"Are you not going to defend yourself?" Susannah's voice is loud, her expression twisted into a glare as she meets Elijah's eyes, and he can only look back at her, the girl that he loves, and wonder how much better off she'd be without him. "Well?"

"No." His eyes drop because he can't hold them up anymore, and the sting of her words is too great. "I won't defend myself. Not when there is nothing more I can say." He settles in his place, as if he was the prey that knew he had no chance of survival so they just gave up and accepted death at the jaws of his predator.

There is dead silence.

One filled with wet eyes and broken hearts.

"I'm sorry."

"What for this time?" Susannah asks with bleak amusement, and she cocks her head to the side, her hip jutting out.

"Everything."

"Not good enough." She fires back immediately, and the resentment held in those three words horrify Elijah. "How long? How long until you decide to leave again?"

"I'm not leaving- not again." His words sound so authentic as he moves closer to her. She can hear his every step. Frustration leaks into his words because he knows why Susannah is like this, why Susannah doesn't believe anything he says – it's because he's a liar and he tried so hard for so long to convince them both that she didn't feel anything for her and it's coming back to haunt him now. "Why do you think I couldn't say goodbye to you? It was because I knew that I couldn't. I couldn't stand to see the look in your eyes when I told you that I was leaving. I couldn't stand to see the disappointment. Or the pain."

"Or maybe because I never mattered so leaving meant nothing." He runs an irritated hand through his dark hair, his eyes fluttering closed in defeat because he simply doesn't know what do anymore and he's so exhausted.

"I don't know what I can do to make you trust me again." All the fight gone from his voice-weary and lax as if he could only take so much more.

"How about trying a little honesty for once in your life."

"I'm _trying_." His voice cracks with the force he puts behind it, because he _is_ , he's trying to be better, not just for Susannah but for his family, too, and for _himself_. Because there are days where he can barely stand to look at himself in the mirror, and he wants to _change_. He wants to not be haunted by the memories of the things he's done (though some things, he's learned, are hard to forget). He wants to be able to look back at his life and actually feel _proud_ of who s\he is, for once.

He'd give anything to feel pride instead of being sickened.

"I'm trying," he repeats, pleading, now, as plain brown eyes lock with her colorful ones. "Can that please be enough? Just… just for now?"

It takes Susannah a long time to answer, and when she does she speaks haltingly, like she's not really sure what to say – not that Elijah can blame her. "I guess we'll find out." And it's not really the answer that he'd wanted, but he supposes it's better than silence.

"Do you want me to go?" He doesn't want to ask, doesn't want to get sent away, but he'd hate to think that Susannah might _want_ him to leave but wouldn't be able to speak up to tell him that, and the last thing he wants is to feel like he's forcing the brunette into spending time with him.

"I…" Susannah bites her lip, and Elijah can see indecision warring in her eyes and he steels himself because he's sure that a rejection is coming. "I think that might be for the best." He fights to keep his expression carefully blank and just nods before spinning and heading for the door, because he thinks if she stays for much longer he might start to cry and he can't stand the thought of doing that in-front of Susannah _again_.

"Elijah?" The brunette's voice stops him when he's halfway out the door, and his hand curls around the doorframe so hard that her knuckles turn white as he takes a deep breath and turns his head. "I'm sorry. About you needing to take care of me tonight. And about the drinking."

"You don't need to apologize for that," he says, puzzled. "It's my fault, isn't it? That you're drinking? _I_ should be apologizing to you."

"Why?" Susannah looks confused, now, her eyebrows creasing into a frown. "You never put the bottle in my hand. _I_ chose that, _I_ did that, and I'm not your responsibility." The brunette bites her lip, looks like she's debating whether to say something else.

 _But you are. You are my responsibility._

While he's walking out Klaus is walking in.

His brother glances at Susannah's tear stained face and back at Elijah, his eyes sharp, protective. Carrying Arael in his arms, the child's wings resting on his brother's chest.

Susannah focuses her gaze on Arael almost immediately, rushing towards Klaus with urgency riding in her veins.

He watches the way, Klaus sets Arael down gently, before standing to his full height and brushing the tears from her face. His thumb moving slowly across the expanse of Susannah's smooth skin. His voice is a low growl, and he watches Susannah melt into his brother's touch.

Closing the door behind him, Elijah can't help but wonder if anyone hates him more than how he hates himself.


	19. Chapter 19

The light bled through the shattered open windows, reflecting off the millions of small shards of glass that lined the floor.

There is a limited amount of sound in the room, yet everyone seems to be moving, moving and not talking. Above his room, he can hear the woman pacing vigorously back and forth, her steps creating a rhythmic sound of creaks and groans from the roof above. The faucet drips into the sink, each one reverberating around the room like a cymbal.

Elijah let out a controlled breath in an attempt to loosen his body movements, he wants to melt into the soft foam of the mattress below him, yet his brain is a violent twirl of stupidity desperately trying to organize the chaos in his life. It seeks to discover a way to control the capriciousness of people, to acquiesce them and please them so that their encounters are much softer and less draining.

The discomfort of the morning light, caused his eyes to burn as he drained the rest of the blood from the blood bag in his hand. Placing the empty bag on the side table next to his bed, he sat up rolling his shoulders.

Everything he did, no matter how small or insignificant felt so inherently wrong, standing and letting his hands fall to his sides he dragged himself to the bathroom. Leaning over the sink he breathed in roughly, clenching and unclenching his fingers as he squeezed his eyes shut.

The mirror only offered a distorted image seeing as most of it was on the floor shattered into small pieces, very much similar to the windows in the main room. Cupping his palms and filling it with water he splashed it onto his face, hoping the biting cold would bring back anything.

He used to love being alone.

Used to crave the days when his siblings were out on their own affairs and no one bothered him, now all it does is taunt him.

Elijah had left town- leaving Susannah behind- and he can't take that back, can't get that time back, has wasted countless hours, days, and weeks that he could have had with Susannah, if only he hadn't been such an _idiot_.

And the absolute worst part of it all is any hint of trust Susannah placed in him was effectively destroyed. No matter what he says, she wouldn't believe that he hadn't seen it as _leaving her behind_ more of _giving her a chance._

But it's too late to change the past (much as he might wish to- and he does, it consumes him, forces him to lie awake at night thinking about what he would have done differently if he had the chance, and it's really no surprise that all he can think about when he even attempts to lie down in bed is Susannah, because after that night, that one night when Susannah slept so peacefully in his arms, he feels like he has been forever stained by her memory), he knows that- but it doesn't stop him from agonizing over it in his every waking moment.

He agonizes over last night, too- has been ever since Susannah asked him to walk away, with tears in her eyes and her only source of comfort his _fucking brother._ Despite the anger he feels at his brother being there- he was somewhat glad as well- Elijah couldn't bear the thought of Susannah doing something stupid because she was hurt, he knew with his brother there, she'd be okay.

Because that's all that really mattered at this point, knowing that she was okay.

He wanted to drown himself in a bottle of vodka, drink until it stopped burning at the back of his throat, drink until he couldn't even remember Susannah's face, the agony etched into her features as she cried, let alone all the horrible things Elijah had done to her.

Instead, he destroyed everything around him, making his room resemble the way he felt on the inside.

Afterward, he squared himself up, got dressed carefully to not let his appearance showcase any of his inner turmoil and took today as he had taken every other day- like a bitter pill to swallow.

He can't help but be surprised when he hears a knock at the door, superstitiously he looks around examining the destruction he caused with impassive eyes. Sighing he flings the door open, utterly shaken when he sees Susannah standing there.

There are tears gleaming in her eyes and any safety net that she had around her to hold herself up seems to be ripped to shreds. She looks so frail and tired as if the world is suddenly becoming too much for her to handle.

"Can I come in?" Her smile is forced and she doesn't meet his eyes. Elijah doesn't mind because she's here- she's standing in front of him and maybe she will give him a chance. A chance to make this better- to love her, to provide her with anything she may ever need no matter the costs.

"Of course," Opening the door wider, he watches her eyes scan the disaster of his room. Glass and wood covering the floors, holes staining the walls.

Carefully stepping over broken glass she reaches for him, and on instinct, his hands shoot up to grasp hers. He stared at her, her hair was still a mess, and in the bright morning light, she looked more beautiful and more human than he'd ever seen her. Her skin was so warm against his, so soft against his hands hardened by death.

"Are you okay?"

"Do you care?" Elijah's breath wavered and his grip immediately loosened, the honest doubt in her voice, the fact that she even had to question what he felt for her hurt. But he deserved it- he brought it forth, now he must pay the consequences.

Susannah looked into his eyes,"I'm sorry." She murmured slowly," That was uncalled for."

"You have every right to not believe in me, or anything I say."

Licking her lips, his eyes automatically following the movement, "I don't want to hurt you. I can't- we can't move past this if I don't give you any chance to try, right?"

Then she goes quiet. It's not a phase of just not speaking, it's not thinking- not reacting.

"Susannah," Elijah breathes, after a long moment. She gives no indication that she's even listening, all Elijah knows is something inside of her is self-destructing. He closes his eyes briefly, the brown in them dulled when he opens them again. "Susannah, angel, you have to keep trying. Okay? Let me help you."

"You don't let people help you," Susannah can't help but say.

Elijah blinks. His lips press together.

"I..." he manages, but his lips open on silence after that. Forcing himself to continue he swallows down any doubts. "I am utterly idiotic, okay? I should have been better for you." The smile he gives a sick parody of Elijah's real joy. Susannah's brokenness has stolen the warmth from Elijah.

"I just want the pain to stop." And it's so quiet in this broken down room, so liminal in a way that lulls her into feeling what she says here won't matter, that she finds herself going on.

"I've tried to make it stop, but it won't. It just keeps hurting. They said I was broken. They said...I just want it to stop, but I can't...I can't be broken like this anymore, Arael needs me to be whole and I don't know if I'm strong enough to be that...and I'm failing him, I'm failing him by not being able to stop the pain. How can I help him ease his pain if I can't even stop my own."

The words slip out too easily now, her ability to stay focused stretching her tongue. It's disconcerting, how she's slow and still bound by a weight she can't identify, unable to move, and restless and light and almost non-existent, and overload and present and pained, in ever-changing, unpredictable sequence.

She realizes Elijah has stilled so she glances up, Susannah had stopped looking at him with angelic eyes as much as he can. He burns green and vibrant and it stings as much as it soothes. Now, he bites his lips, his brow pinched, avoiding meeting her eyes.

"It's not a case of fixing," he says at last. "That idea of needing fixing, Susannah, You're not a thing. Not like a vase when you drop it, or a machine when it stops working. Healing isn't always something that ends."

Susannah shakes her head as if nothing makes any sense. "What use am I to you?"

"Why do you have to be of use?" He asks, after a pause where his fingers twitch for death.

Someone must have told her that she has to be useful to deserve care.

"There must be an order, everyone has a place and has something they must do." An angel once assigned a task must complete it, or otherwise, they simply aren't an angel.

"You are confusing me with heaven." Susannah tilts her head, the spark behind her eyes burning with intensity as they stare so deeply into Elijah's. She's bracing herself with her hands digging into her sides and her back is tense. "I don't want you to do anything, Susannah. I don't want you to make yourself useful to me...I just want you here."

"And you are confusing me with a human. Elijah, I don't see things the way you do, I have a purpose and no matter what the mission that I'm assigned to must be completed."

Elijah moves closer, altering his grip on her skin, and his right-hand curves further behind the back of her head, into her hair. She feels like Elijah is trying to cradle her, to keep her safe, and she isn't sure what to do with that.

"Has knowing me caused you to feel as if you were breaking?" And Susannah can't help but wonder why he would ask her such a thing.

This isn't a question Susanah could possibly answer. Elijah has hurt her, and she's hurt Elijah, and she's been hurt so many times since knowing Elijah, but she'd still rather know him than not. And it hasn't been only pain.

"Falling to Earth cost me," she says because the practical way is much easier to deal with. "My wounds from that time were never fully healed, and there've been more wounds, yes, since then. But despite everything, I don't blame you, and that means you shouldn't blame yourself either."

Elijah scoffs. "Just because you don't blame me doesn't mean I'm any good for you. That's why I left, that's why I should've stayed away."

"This isn't about leaving or staying. I think you have your problems just like I do...and I see the way you look at me sometimes. Don't misunderstand me, love isn't always enough, it doesn't wipe everything else away, and if we tear at each other it doesn't matter how much love there is. But maybe, if you keep on working on it with me we could be good for each other. Besides angels are all about devotion, and according to Arael I am devoted to you."

And that made her feel lighter somehow.

Elijah and she still had obvious trust issues with one another, and maybe some anger and pain still twisted in the mix, but when he kissed her forehead, despite the heaviness in her stomach, her heart fluttered at being so close to him. Sinking into the warmth of his sides, thoroughly appreciating the affection that spilled off of him. It made everything a little less bleak.

Hugs with Elijah could never be too long and for that she's glad.

In that moment of being caged in his arms something passes through her mind- if a hug could take this much weight off what could more do?

So she leans up and catches his lips in hers. Not innocently like a tease, but hot, fiery, passionate, demanding.

The kiss obliterated everything. There was no struggle to hold onto control, breathless with delight as his fingers ran up and down her spine, a slow blink signaling his desire. His lips felt so gentle and warm, the pressure between their bodies increasing by every moving second.

Susannah feels the hard wall behind her and Elijah's tongue moving past the seam of her lips, delving inside of her mouth, she could nearly taste the slight burn of fire as it rolled down off Elijah's lips and seeped down her throat with every push of his tongue against hers.

Her plump velvety lips compelling him to pick her up, her legs immediately wrapping around his waist, his hands clutching onto her thighs. Emphinany and elevation relocated in their veins, his insistent mouth sending wild tremors down her nerves.

"Susannah," every syllable rolling off his tongue with enough strength to rock the world. She feels his breath tickle her neck before she feels his teeth graze against her skin, causing her body to shudder in anticipation. All rational thought evacuating her mind once he sucked on her skin, imprinting his mark onto her.

A sound escaped her lips, one she had never made before in her life, the ancient vampire snickered under his breath lightly before his tongue lashes out against her skin once again. Slanting his head, deepening his ministrations.

Finding his hands Susannah drags them under the smooth layer of her shirt for him to feel the perfect softness beneath, she wants him to touch her, it helps her forget everything beyond this inexplicable feeling. His hands begin to move on their own caressing her skin with a tenderness she hadn't know he was capable of. The smoldering heat deep within her burning stronger the higher his hands went.

Sliding over the curve of her breast, before Elijah jerks his hands away as if Susannah's skin was on fire. Immediately unlatching her legs from around his waist he places her back on the ground.

An insistent whimper falls from her mouth as she follows him in step. She wants more.

Digging her nails into the hard planes of his shoulders, her lips falling to the side of his neck, copying the motions he made previously. The groan that runs up his throat and causes him to squeeze her waist only motivation.

"Enough Susannah," He huffs out her name in a brutal manner as if he's struggling to hold onto control as if she's dancing around him scandalously, tempting him with every twist and turn and curve her body has to offer.

He rips himself away from her, his already dark eyes practically black with lust.

"I don't want this to stop." Her voice is raw and open as she reaches for Elijah again, the rise and fall of her chest becoming clearer as she pulls the shirt she wears off her body, carelessly throwing it to the floor. The lace fabric of her bra sticking to her body, as sweat beads roll down her collarbone.

Swollen and firm, the satin flesh of her breast was so damned pretty. She is a vision, and she knows it. She knows that Elijah's eyes can't help but trace every curve her feminine figure graced, that he can't help his fingers from twitching at the thought of feeling all her softness.

"Your drunk off grief and not in the right state of mind to-"

"The only thing I am drunk off is you," Susannah threw out bitingly, daring Elijah to counter her, she drags the fabric down her thighs in a motion that causes Elijah's knees to go weak. Her shoes easily discarded and soon her jeans where to. She stands her perfect body open for display. Elijah's eyes unabashedly staring at the wide sway of her hips and thighs.

His mouth is dry and it's so difficult to focus, yet he knows this was wrong. But he can't help but want to be wrong if it meant having Susannah pressed against his naked body.

"You are looking for a distraction," Elijah speaks slowly, his hands shaking and his head lowered. "I refuse to take advantage of-"

"I am not a child," Susannah hissed, moving until her body pressed against his as if to remind him how womanly she truly was. A low growl fought its way through his chest as his hands clasped tightly against the hot skin of her hips. She hadn't expected this, the slashing arcs of electricity.

Her hands boldly move down to cover him through his pants, palming him as Elijah tenses beneath her wanton touches. "You want me Elijah- I know you do." And she's smiling as if she's winning exactly what she desired, her lips spreading across her face.

Arching into him, his body moving on its own accord to lift her towards him. Firm, calculating, and masterful- filled with a dark rich hunger. This was pleasure? Fiery bolts of sensation that threatened to destroy reality? The need for something closer, something she'd never had before and had no idea how to ask for.

"I never said I didn't want you, Susannah," His voice is steely as he feels her apply more pressure to his most sensitive part, his incisors lengthening to dig into his bottom lip.

Her swollen lips move to press against his, kissing him over and over and over again. One hand entangling with his, synchronizing together to drag over her skin. Down the softness of her stomach, over her upper thighs before sinking his hand between her legs. She could feel his calloused fingers against the place the heat started. Yes, she needed this, needed touch where this painful pleasure was gathering.

Then it was there a hard male palm over the swollen bud of her-

There was no escaping the inferno of warmth exploding outwards, it pulsed through her, each surge bending, burning, and throwing her higher into the realm of pure ecstasy.

"Easy, Susannah. Shhh, just one last kiss," Elijah promised."Nothing more. Nothing taken. If you want to be released, you'll be free." He wasn't talking to her when he spoke, his words were directed more to himself. Elijah wanted more than anything to deny her, to push her as far away as he could- but he couldn't. Not when she was this addictive, this warm, this close.

Did she want to be released?

What did she want?

Her fingers dug into the material of the shirt covering Elijah's shoulders, fisting into it as she tried and failed and still the erratic storm she sensed gathering inside of her.

"Just a kiss?" Susannah asked she needed to be certain." Only on the lips, is that what you want?"

The wicked chuckle from him was filled with sensual knowledge.

"My intelligent siren. Why must you tempt me?" Black eyes stared into hers; mystery, secrets, wicked, carnal delights gleamed in the dark expanse. She was a virgin, yes, but she wasn't stupid. She knew what sex was, she didn't know if that was what she wanted. But if it could make her forget then it must be the answer, right?

His lips were more demanding but no less gentle. Holding her to him as he slid one hand from her thigh to her rear, cupped the flesh of buttock and breathed a kiss on her; her Elijah kissed her with dark, heady hunger.

As that powerful feeling whipped through her she found herself back on her feet, swaying as powerful hands steadied her and Elijah stared down at her. She tried to follow him as he eased back but his hands held her in place.

"Enough," His voice brooked no arguments, and as she fell back in step from the mere authority in his voice, her head bowed downwards.

"Why does that have to be all?" Susannah found herself saying, she didn't know where it was all coming from- the words just kept slipping out of her mouth. So quickly she had no chance of even catching them.

"You know why."

Suddenly tears burned her eyes even though she had no idea why they were there. "You can have sex with Katherine but not with me?" Shame flooded her cheeks as they turned a bright crimson.

She watched his hands twitch with barely concealed rage," What would possess you to sink yourself to such a level, Susannah? You want to know why- You are not meaningless, Susannah. You are not cheap sex to gain temporary pleasure, you are not something to be forgotten. You deserve to be worshiped. To succumb to loving hands. If I were to lay with you now I would be taking advantage of the pain you feel inside and I refuse to do that. I refuse to- I refuse to give you anything less than the best and I cannot do that If I'm unsure you even want this."

Susannah's blush seared through her cheeks and for a minute she thought she was on fire. She suddenly felt awkward, demure, coy; even going as far to attempt to hide her rosy features behind her slim fingers. What had she done? Why had she allowed herself to get so lost? Breaking away from him, she sunk into the biting cold of the air around her.

"Look at me." How could she? How could Susannah even hope to look into his eyes ever again when she had embarrassed herself so fully in front of him.

He gripped her hands and pried them away from her face, pushing her chin up so their eyes would meet.

"Are you mad at me?"

Elijah chuckled," Not at all."

Looking away from Elijah and out the open window, her shoulders sagging, "The good feelings made it so easy to forget everything else- I'm sorry I tried to use you to forget, Elijah."

There was silence, Elijah noticing Susannah shivering deftly removed his jacket and placed it on her shoulders, smiling when she made no move to push it off.

"What happened Susannah? What was so bad that you felt like you had no other option but to come to me?"

Grinding her teeth together Susannah let out a loose breath," You make it sound as if me coming to you is something I would never do."

Elijah shrugged.

"I saw how hurt you were by me. You don't have to undermine that or try to make it seem like me hurting you doesn't matter, when it really does."

Sighing deeply Susannah ran her hands through her dark hair, her lips flattening out into a straight line. "I found out that my brother tried to cut off his own wings."

"Susannah-"

"I didn't want to come to you but I didn't have anyone else who would actually care. Niklaus needed to stay with Arael- for whatever reason Arael feels he can be more open with him than with me."

"Sometimes family can be too close." Elijah's voice floods her filling her with a warmth different from before.

"I guess," she quipped quietly, cuddling into herself to make herself seem smaller.

"Are you going to be okay?" He genuinely cares, his voice says that much. His voice says more too but she can't look too deep into that, not now- not when there are so many other worries dancing around in her mind.

"I don't know." Rubbing her eyes she forces forward a laugh. "I just don't know."

He holds her hands, he holds them so tightly it shakes her some. "There's so much going on-"

"Then tell me, Susannah. Let me help you, please."

"I don't know how, no one's ever wanted to take care of me before." For an angel, it was indecent for her to be so weak for Elijah. But all those rules and pointless commandments didn't seem to matter when he leaned down and kissed her again. His eyes were closed, and he held himself quiet as if he were waiting. She could feel the warm texture of his lips- roughened by years of sun and rain- and ripe with taste. She kept her eyes open, marveling at this man who singlehandedly brought her back from such a dark place.

"I will. I will take care of you if that's what you want."


End file.
